


River of Stars

by Vathara



Category: Saiyuki, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Cultural Differences, Culture Shock, Gen, Genetic Engineering, Genetically Engineered Beings, Hakkai is Awesome, Hakkai is also Vicious, Headcanon, Kanzeon is very sneaky, Sanzo warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-05-27 22:21:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 91,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6302518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vathara/pseuds/Vathara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two years ago, an SGC/Tok'ra mission on Shangri-La went badly wrong. The local Goa'uld Queen took advantage... and the survivors just found their way home. </p>
<p>AKA, Saiyuki in SG-verse AU. Sanzo meets the Tok'ra. Blood will out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Crash Into Hello

**Author's Note:**

> Saiyuki/SG-1, fusion AU. Of which I own nothing. Not sure exactly what spawned this bunny, outside of momentary insanity… and Gyokumen Koushu's distinct double-voice on the anime. Eeep. Timeline: SG, AU almost two years after "Divide and Conquer", no particular point in Saiyuki. And if the Ancient language really was related to Latin, given how long ago the Ancients were around, it actually should have been related to Proto-Indo-European, if anything. Which makes Sanskrit fair game.

Thunder rumbling in the clouds. The _crack_ of bone, as Goku's bo staff flattened yet another foe. A howl of summoned tornadoes, swooping toward the four of them as their more sane opponents scrambled for cover. The tang of cordite as Sanzo's bullet took the summoning youkai in the forehead in a spray of blood. Without dispelling the tornadoes, worse luck. All in all, a pretty typical day on the road.

…If you didn't count the Tok'ra shuttlecraft taking off, dodging tornadoes and one lightning strike near the Stargate with contemptuous technological ease.

_Get what you want, and to hell with the native help,_ Genjyo Sanzo thought darkly, firing twice more before howling winds made it more a risk to his allies than his enemies. _Again. Why am I_ not _surprised?_

"No offense, Hakkai," Sha Gojyo yelled over the tumult, shakajou snapping out to shred the closest foes, "but your relatives suck!"

Even through the bloodlust, : _amusement_ : sparkled in Sanzo's senses as Cho Hakkai laughed. "None taken!"

Thready and tired, Hakkai's blast of energy still put down a few of the more stubborn idiots, winning the four of them a minute to regroup and breathe. Right hand up and ready, if shaking, the healer plucked an odd black wristband out of his sash. "Is this what you wanted, Gojyo? I hope they haven't missed it yet… what is it, anyway? It's not Goa'uld technology-"

Sanzo missed the rest in a rib-jarring _thump_ , as a downdraft tossed Hakuryuu at him and the little dragon dug claws into his robes and rakusu for dear life. "Idiot dragon," he cursed without heat. "Whole forest over there and you pick me to land on?"

Granted, there was a lot _less_ forest now, what with the winds ripping through here. But it had to be better cover than _him_.

: _Cordite-scent/curled warm-safe dragon. Wind-scent - wings broken/fear!_ :

_Damn it, do that to Hakkai, not me!_

"Ten left!" Goku exulted, Nyoi-bo shortening back to a simple staff as he touched down beside the priest. "This is gonna be easy."

"Twelve," Sanzo corrected, counting auras, crouching so the wind had less to grab at. The DHD broke the gale a little, and ammo made his robes less of a parachute than most monks, but this was not good. _Why'd the damn Goa'uld have to plant 'Gates where there's no cover?_

Because a ha'tak cared about tornadoes the way a boulder cared about gnats, probably. And it wasn't like this Stargate would have seen much use in the last decade. Definitely not by the Tok'ra. No DHD on the planet would work without a key; either Kanzeon's, or Gyokumen Koushu's. And not all the Tok'ra scientists' efforts, while their sneakier comrades grabbed youkai zatarc _samples_ , would have cut through that nasty little knot. Might as well try to get the SGC to open the iris on pure good faith….

_Focus on now_ , Sanzo swore at himself. _Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has to get past the latest bunch of assassins. And tornadoes._

Impressive as the twisting funnels were, he was more worried about the youkai. The wind was still lousy for shooting, but they were starting to get brave again, as whatever energy-twist the dead youkai had given to the atmosphere started to die-

Something dark whipped through the wind, and Nyoi-bo smacked him aside.

_…So that's where the trees went._

Half a dozen splintered trunks rained down around them, one shattering right on the 'Gate. And it wasn't right for Goku to be so still, even in his sleep the monkey was never still-

_He's breathing_ , Sanzo told himself harshly, checking Goku's diadem for cracks near the swelling lump. Hakuryuu scrabbled into his long white sleeve as he scooped up the light body; odds were they'd have to move, and fast. _You know how hard his head is. He'll be_ fine.

_We might not be._

The gun in his left hand was a heavy, deadly promise. Someone needed to _pay_ for hurting his monkey. _Just let the wind weaken a little more…._

"Concussion," Hakkai said breathlessly, green glowing weakly around one hand as he brushed Goku's forehead. "I can handle it, if we can get clear of them."

_If you don't keel over first_ , Sanzo thought grimly. Between Tok'ra machinations and the fighting, they'd been up for days. Hell, Gojyo hadn't made an innuendo for hours - and if that wasn't a reliable indicator of how close his party was to dropping in their tracks, nothing was.

_Twelve more. We can handle them. We have to._

Gojyo made a _huh_ noise, and plucked the odd black wristcuff out of Hakkai's sash. _"I say we blow this pop stand."_

For a long moment, Sanzo stared as blankly as Hakkai. The words weren't Koryo - Shangri-La's odd, evolved mix of archaic Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. They weren't even Goa'uld.

_English. He spoke English. And that's-_

"GDO," Gojyo grinned at the impossible object, radiating smugness. "Figured if the alliance with Earth was still in one piece, they might have one. And, lo and behold."

_I can't breathe._

"Didn't want to get your hopes up," Gojyo elaborated at Sanzo's look. "For all I knew, the fiasco that landed us here made the SGC write 'em off like a bad debt. And they'd never have let a 'local fomenter of baseless superstition' anywhere _near_ their head guy, you know that. Hakkai, though - he's fast, polite, and sneaky. Figure he had the best shot of any of us at lifting it from them."

_I can't_ think.

Lucky Hakkai could react while he was still frozen. "You mean, this is-" the brunet started.

"The key to _our_ side of the 'Gate," Gojyo nodded. And eyed the sutra lying across Sanzo's shoulders. "And guess who's got the key to this side?"

_He's right_ , Sanzo thought numbly. _It unlocks the transport rings in the temples, Chang'an and otherwise. And Koushu's traps. It should unlock the 'Gate. I've just never tried it before, because - because…._

: _Killing intent_ : flared in his senses, and his head snapped up. "They're coming!"

"So get moving!" Gojyo smirked. "We'll cover you."

_Cover me? I'm the one who should be shooting, you idiot!_

But even through the haze of their foes' bloodlust, Gojyo's homesickness bit at him like old scars. The redheaded halfbreed had followed him out of Ni's hell of a laboratory through blood and death and treachery, and never asked for anything. Not like this.

_I have to try._

Drawing himself up by the DHD, Goku's unconscious body close enough to touch, Sanzo started to chant. Say this for the endless months of their travels; by now he could cast his mind into trance asleep, drugged, underwater, or dying of blood loss. And _had_ , at one time or another-

_"Open to me!"_

The Maten Sutra flared on his shoulders, lashing out lengths of itself to rouse the DHD from its locked slumbers. Eyes still half-closed, Sanzo watched his hands touch symbols memorized a lifetime ago, then brush the center crystal….

With a whoosh to rival the vanished tornadoes, a silvery hole opened in the universe.

"Whoa," Goku groaned, gold eyes blinking at the water-shimmer of energy in the 'Gate. "What is _that?_ "

"Gojyo's next date," Sanzo said dryly. "Do you even know how to work that thing?" he called to the redhead. "Because in case you've forgotten, I was a temp!"

"Have a little-" Gojyo grunted, shakajou shredding limbs as he pulled back. "Faith! Military likes to stick to what works, so-" His fingers danced across the GDO's buttons, there was a breathless silence-

Which Sanzo promptly shattered with bullets as the last idiots charged them, holding onto Goku with his right hand when the kid would have charged right back. One down, now two… and three wasn't dropping, even with the rest of the rounds emptied into him.

_Damn. That's one of the Goa'uld._

Most Goa'uld didn't like youkai hosts, even if they were less fragile than humans. Something to do with snake aesthetics… or maybe they just didn't like how youkai instincts gave the host more of a chance to fight back, if it wasn't zatarc-programmed. But Gyokumen Koushu could be _persuasive_.

Dump spent brass, let the idiot monkey go to fight even if the kid was seeing double, reload-

Gojyo's shakajou sliced through the bastard before Nyoi-bo could touch it; Goku almost fell over his own feet pulling up short. Sanzo yanked him the rest of the way up, sensing : _rage_ : as the symbiote prepared to abandon the body….

: _Surprise/fear/determination to follow!_ :

Hakkai might as well have clamped a manacle on his wrist. Sanzo took blind steps backward, Goku dizzy beside him, toward that sudden _absence_ of kappa and healer, and….

Cold. Starry cold, that went on forever.

Cold that ended in a painful thump onto metal grating, air that tasted of concrete and plastic, and an echoing, amplified voice.

Whatever it said, Sanzo couldn't spare the time to translate. At least four of their youkai buddies had tumbled through with them, _and_ the damn snake. Which, no accounting for taste, jumped straight for Goku.

Ordinarily, Sanzo wouldn't have worried about that. Ordinarily, Goku's reflexes let him snatch, strangle, and shred any Goa'uld that got that close. But with the : _dizzy, sick_ : radiating off the kid-

Goku grabbed, all right. And yelped, and tossed it away, not thinking beyond the fact that sharp teeth had _bitten_ him.

: _Hate-rage-lust for body-_ :

Sanzo fired.

Blue blood splattered to the ground, the squelch almost covered by a whispered, _"Shit…."_

Dim electric lights. The coppery reek of blood. Green-uniformed people holding guns aimed their way. No serious intent to kill, but that many nervous trigger fingers twitching toward his people-

_Don't shoot_ , Sanzo told himself, deliberately taking his finger off the trigger. _These guys aren't the enemy._

_Yet_ , hissed the dark, paranoid part of him. Remembering betrayal, and rain.

"Whoa," Goku breathed, craning his head back to peer all the way up to the massive missile doors overhead. And almost falling over. "Are we in a fortress? How'd we get underground? Was it some kind of youkai illusion?"

"Eyes on the enemy, monkey," Sanzo said sharply, steadying him. "Hakkai! Any hitchhikers?" He didn't feel any that weren't : _fading, dying_ : but better to be sure.

The spade end of Gojyo's shakajou scythed down.

_Crunch._

"Not anymore," the brunet said cheerfully.

_"I said, identify yourselves!"_

"Oh great. We got the kiddies on nightshift," Gojyo grumbled. "Okay, Doc. You're up."

_Doc._ How long had it been since he'd owned that title, instead of Sanzo?

_English. Remember English._

He cleared his throat. "I'm… Dr. Kouryuu Genjyo, provisionally attached to SG-6," he said slowly, making his gun disappear up the sleeve without a dragon in it. "This is Captain-" _Gojyo_ "-Joseph Sha, SG-10; Cho Hakkai, a local from Shangri-La; and Goku, my ward." _Keep talking. As long as we're talking, they're not shooting, and I really… don't want to shoot them. I think._ "We lost our calendars a while back, so I'm not sure of the date. But I think we're at least… a year and a half overdue." Gods. Had it only been that long?

_A lifetime._

: _Disbelief._ : But a lot less hostility. He could work with that-

"Cheep?"

"And this is Hakuryuu," Sanzo said dryly, arching an eyebrow at the blond crewcut in charge. _Of_ course _I keep dragons up my sleeve. You got a problem with that, moron?_

"What's everybody saying?" Goku complained in Koryo. "Are those guns? Don't they know you don't point something at us, 'less you intend to _use_ it?"

Three hands landed on Goku before he could summon Nyoi-bo. "We could _really_ use a medic," Gojyo said with a tight smile. "Goku took a pretty good crack on the head, and we're all… tired." 

Crewcut looked at them. Looked at the splattered Goa'uld. Looked at the five youkai bodies scattered across the floor in various degrees of dismemberment. Looked back at them.

Three idiots tried to radiate innocence. Sanzo… tried to tone down his usual "going to kill you _now_ " to armed truce.

"…Somebody wake up the general."

 

* * *

 

Dr. Janet Fraiser covered her mouth as she yawned, blinking to clear the fog of a too-brief nap. SG-8's latest diplomatic efforts in an offworld sauna had landed half of them in the infirmary with what looked like a massive case of poison ivy, so Cassie was with a sitter while the SGC's head doctor checked them out hourly to make sure it wasn't _inhaled_ poison ivy. Or worse. And now there'd been an unscheduled 'Gate activation - someone had mentioned Tok'ra - so who knew what kind of medical emergency was about to land in her lap-

Nervous security opened the doors, and a tall redhead in a brown leather jacket, what looked like denims, and a wide blue headband grinned at her. "Doc! Tell me my dreams are true, and you're still a single woman!"

_Smack._

"Ow…." The stranger rubbed the back of his head, as his grim blond companion made a folded paper fan disappear up one white sleeve. "Damn. Celibacy turns a guy _mean_."

"Die, kappa," the white-robed blond gritted out, as a few of the guards sputtered. "Just die."

Janet blinked. Resisted the urge to rub her eyes, and mentally checked which SG teams were offworld. They didn't _look_ like anyone she knew. But - four, and weird outfits, and the way they'd all walked in; in sync, and all but ignoring the heavily-armed guards….

_Blond's in charge_ , she noted, taking in the red spot on his forehead, half-hidden by golden bangs. _Not blood; some kind of decoration?_ Hmm… leaf-spattered white robes, long black belt, elaborate bamboo chestpiece, and a sort of green-edged stole over his shoulders, marked with an odd, twisting script that looked vaguely familiar. Ritual garb, or she'd eat one of Daniel's Egyptology texts. Add that to the walk, best categorized as "move or I walk _through_ you". _Somebody's been impersonating a Goa'uld high priest. Whoa. That takes guts._

Which fit with the two of them who could have been passing for priestly servants, kind of. The bright-eyed teenager, definitely; between the golden diadem in spiky brown hair and the bone-spiked shoulder armor under his short orange cloak, "junior warrior-priest acolyte" seemed like a good call. The older, dark-haired man in a vaguely Chinese green silk shirt, white sash, and tan pants looked a little less plausible, but he still might have been some temple functionary. Especially considering the- Janet's eyes bugged.

"Kyuu?" Red eyes blinked at her, as the little white dragon shifted on silk and sash.

"Trying to sweet-talk you already," the redhead grinned. "Doc, Hakuryuu." His smile slipped a little. "Been a while. Don't suppose you remember. We're probably MIA, am I right?"

_MIA._ Something in the casual stance suddenly clicked. Hair and eyes had been brown and brown, not scarlet and crimson, and those scars on his left cheek were nothing she recalled. But she'd seen teams in weirder states, and almost two years ago…. "Sha?" Janet said uncertainly. "Captain Joseph Sha?"

The way the man lit up, all hints of flirting washed away in pure relief, was all the answer she needed. "Can you help us out?" Sha asked. "Hakkai says he's fine, but he'd say that if he were bleeding to death, and I know Goku's not fine, and neither of 'em speak much English, and Sanzo's about asleep on his feet, which means we're gonna be out our guy who can translate the tricky stuff-"

"I'm. Not. Asleep."

_But you need to be_ , Janet thought, seeing the circles under violet eyes. Up two or three days straight, if she knew exhausted teams. As soon as their injuries were treated, she was shoving them all into bed, reports be damned. Sha had been MIA, presumed KIA, for almost two years. Another eight hours shouldn't make a difference.

"Sure," Sha said wryly. "And that white robe means you're Mother Teresa."

"Don't think Mother Teresa carries a gun," one of the guards snorted.

"Take care of it while you have it," Sanzo said coldly. "I don't want to break in a new one."

"Sanzo!" The teenager almost bolted past the guards to point at her computer, chattering away in a language she didn't know at warp speed.

"And this would be your first patient," Sha said without skipping a beat, as Sanzo unceremoniously hauled the boy up onto one of her examining tables. "Doc, Son Goku. There were tornadoes, he got hit by a tree…."

"Yesterday?" Janet asked, taking out her penlight without any of the tirades most Earth-based doctors would have given about seeking medical attention _immediately_. SG teams _knew_ that. They got back as fast as they could.

"Um. More like an hour ago," Sha admitted as she looked over the lump. "Goku's youkai. They heal faster."

"Alien?" Mentally, Janet girded herself for the worst. She could treat a stomped Goa'uld symbiote, she could at least try to handle what they'd brought in.

"Variant human," Sanzo said tiredly, holding Goku mostly still as she checked pupils and reflexes. "There are people on Shangri-La who _like_ playing with DNA."

And that was more than enough to explain the nightmares lurking in their eyes. The doctor in her winced in sympathy. The captain in charge of SGC medicine took mental notes of the tests she'd have to run once triage was over-

Two hands grabbed her wrist before she could touch the diadem; Goku's, gold eyes wide and startled, and Sanzo's, immovable as rock. "Don't," the blond warned. "It's not jewelry."

"Then what is it?" _Add alien artifact contact to the checklist._

"It's a…" Sanzo trailed off into that other language as he let go, hissing something that had to be a swear. "Limiter," he managed, fighting his way back to English. "That's - close, anyway. Youkai need them. Run your checks, but it stays on."

"Hakkai has 'em, too," Sha offered. "The ear cuffs. Long story, we'll fill you in later. For now, just leave them alone, and everything will be fine."

_Ear cuffs?_ Janet glanced at the bits of silver on the brunet's left ear, and found herself caught by the shy curiosity in green eyes. _That's a monocle. Shangri-La has lenses?_ That would make it fairly high-tech, as Goa'uld worlds went. _He must be half blind in that eye. What happened?_

Ducking his head, Hakkai bowed to her, and spoke softly.

"Cho Hakkai, I'm very pleased to meet you, and how is Goku?" Sha translated.

"Goku should be fine," Janet determined, bowing back. "I'd like to keep him under observation for a day or so, but he seems to have a very hard head."

"You have no idea," Sanzo snorted. Rested a hand on the boy's shoulder, and said something in a low tone.

The resulting teenage whine was all too familiar, alien or not. Janet had to grin. "Let me guess. All the excitement's over, and he's _starving_."

Three pairs of eyes stared at her; Sanzo looked slightly nonplussed. "How did you know?"

"I have a teenager," Janet said dryly. "Tell him if he behaves, I'll get someone to bring something down from the cafeteria."

Shaking his head, Sanzo muttered something; Goku cheered, and pounced, quick as a cat. His hug made Janet glad her ribs were in one piece. "Erk. Goku. _Air_." As Sha pried him off with an air of big-brotherly threat, she had to laugh. "I like him. Where did you find him? Is he a refugee?" _Another orphan?_

"He doesn't remember anything before Ni Jianyi's lab," Sha said matter-of-factly. "Sanzo broke him out with me and Hakkai, and the four of us have pretty much stuck together since."

"What was I thinking?" Sanzo grumbled.

"Aww. Go ahead and admit it," Sha teased. "Underneath that cold, homicidal exterior beats a heart of true, merciful, priestly compassion."

"Obviously, you haven't had enough people trying to kill you today." That quick, Sanzo whirled on one of the guards, smacking away the muzzle that had started to point at Hakkai. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"He's Goa'uld!"

Glowing hand resting over Goku's head, Hakkai stood still. Hakuryuu bristled on his shoulder, wings spread.

"He's Tok'ra. I'd trust him with my life. He's just making sure Goku's not banged up somewhere the doc doesn't know to check for, yet," Sha said seriously. "Sheesh. Relax."

"No. They have a right." Cold as ice, Sanzo stepped back. "The misunderstanding is our fault. Shangri-La… isn't like here." He eyed Janet. "Most doctors are human, or youkai. But desperate cases go to see one of Kanzeon's favored healers."

"Hosts?" Janet said warily. _What kind of planet were they on?_ "That's not a usual healing device." More like the lethal ring the Ashrak after Jolinar had used. Only Hakkai had six, three on each hand; bands that looked like mottled platinum and white gold. "And I thought all Tok'ra knew English."

"Hakkai was locked up longer than I was," Sha shrugged. "Last he'd heard, Ra was still lording it over the galaxy. So-" he motioned at Goku. "You mind?"

"No. Please do," Janet said firmly. Looked straight at Hakkai, and nodded. "Thank you, Hakkai. It'll let me spend more time on the rest of your friends."

"Ooo," Sha grinned. "I like the sound of that."

Janet rolled her eyes, but waved the guards back, as the redhead hopped up onto another table and stripped his blood-specked jacket and shirt off. "Are you hurt anywhere you know about?"

"Maybe a few cuts. Nothing serious. They weren't exactly Gyokumen Koushu's top of the line assassins."

"Who?" Janet asked, checking for anything the captain might have missed in the adrenaline of a fight. _Lots of scars, all healed clean… damn, that must have just missed his heart. Everything seems in good shape, though; probably helped that he's young. Twenty-five, maybe? Need to check his file._

"The other Goa'uld Queen on Shangri-La," Sanzo said levelly.

Two Queens on the same planet? That couldn't be good. _And you_ really _don't want to talk about it,_ Janet realized. Put that together with Sha's mention of celibacy - the doctor tried not to wince. _If I've got another Goa'uld rape victim here, I want in on the next team that goes out to blow the bitch up._

But she kept her cool, and finished her exam, cursory as it was. As he'd said, Sha only had a few cuts and bruises. Most of which were already healing.

_Like Teal'c heals. But he's not a Jaffa. Huh._ Janet lightly shoved him off the table. "Can one of you translate for me with Hakkai?"

"I've got it," Sha said magnanimously, as a bewildered airman arrived with a tray full of late-night snacks. "You feed the monkey."

"You're enjoying this," Sanzo accused, grabbing Goku by the collar before he could snatch everything with both hands.

"Like you wouldn't believe," Sha smirked. "Eat something, would you? Goku's right; you don't eat enough to glue a kite together." He paused. "And man, that sounds so _weird_ in English."

"Bite me."

_Bad temper, celibate, avoiding physical contact, potentially self-abusing_ , Janet tallied on her mental list. _Houston, we have major trauma here._ There was, after all, a _reason_ she was leaving Sanzo for last. Beyond the fact that his attitude reminded her all too well of a certain colonel with a bleeding archaeologist, and trying to treat any of that man's injuries before his team was safe and sound was an exercise in hair-pulling frustration.

"Cheep?" Red eyes blinked at her like a kitten; the dragon curved its head down, looking winsome.

_Asking to be petted_ , Janet thought, and glanced at Hakkai. "May I?"

"Please do; you'll make her feel a lot better," Sha said frankly. And lowered his voice. "Hakuryuu's usually got a good sense for who wants to fillet us. And Hakkai's shy about his scars."

_Scars?_ Janet thought, stroking a wonderfully soft dragon; the mane was silky after all, the neck's scaly appearance due to fur fused like pangolin scales. _Tok'ra usually don't have- oh. Ow._

She couldn't blame Captain Sha for standing to block the guards' vision. From the look of ropy white keloid tissue, someone had tried to disembowel Hakkai with a long, sharp knife. And almost succeeded.

"He says you've probably seen worse," Sha said quietly.

Janet took in that carefully neutral tone, and Hakkai's self-effacing smile, and revised upward the number of people in this room who needed serious emotional TLC. "I have," she said matter-of-factly. "But not often. You must have wanted to live very much."

Sha winced, but translated. Hakkai _looked_ at her. For a moment, Janet saw honest, rueful surprise.

_Oh. You didn't. Oh, boy…._

But Hakkai laughed, gently, and shifted his shoulders in a modest shrug, delivering a few quiet sentences.

"Thanks for worrying, but he's okay now," Sha told her. "After all, he's got the rest of us to look after, and the trouble we find is way too interesting to let himself do anything as boring as dying." The redhead looked at her directly. "He's too polite for his own good, a lot of the time, but he really is better. Once we broke him out, hauled him around in daylight for a few months, and killed a few of his nightmares, he figured out he wanted to live after all."

Janet arched her own red brow. "I take it you mean that literally."

"You better believe it." Sha didn't look doubtful, or even vaguely apologetic. Just - tired.

Trying not to be obvious, Janet glanced toward the other half of the team. The blond was fielding Goku's barrage of questions with curt replies, slowly working his way through a makeshift sandwich as his ward downed almost everything else on the tray.

_I hear every word you're saying, but I am Ignoring You, so in the morning we can pretend this never happened,_ Janet translated that stiff set of robed shoulders. But if Hakkai were really upset, she'd bet her last Oreos that Sanzo would be right over here to glare her off. Or try to. Years of exposure to Colonel O'Neill had given her a fair level of death-glare tolerance. "I need to take a blood sample. From each of you."

"Damn. Forgot that little treat," Sha said lightly. "Give us a minute to explain, okay? Youkai smell blood a lot better than humans do, and if Goku scents Hakkai's, he'd probably smack you first and remember how fragile humans are later. Sanzo-"

_"Aa,"_ the blond nodded, setting his crumbs down to fold his hands and speak in an even, calm tone.

_Wow._ Janet leaned back and listened, letting foreign words flow over her like a rippling stream. _Maybe I can get him to read me a myth later. When he's not trying to insult someone… I like that voice. It's so clear._

And then it was needles, vials, and labels, one after another. The blood looked human enough. But then, that was what the cellular reader was for.

_At least we got that much out of the Tok'ra_. Their so-called allies had had to come up with _something_ for Earth in the wake of the utter disaster that had wiped out SG-10 and 6, putting Sha and nine other Tau'ri on the KIA list. The reader was relatively "primitive and innocuous".

_I'll take what I can get._ Among its other uses, it could read and decipher DNA faster and with more depth than any current Earth-based techniques. Given the number of germs, bugs, and viruses SG teams ended up bringing home, native and Goa'uld-made, it'd been a lifesaver.

_Three down, and the hard case to go._ "Would you mind stepping over here, Major-?"

Sanzo stared at her, incredulous. The guards looked suddenly nervous.

"Doctor," Sha corrected them all with a grin. "Ph.D., not MD. Dr. Kouryuu Genjyo, linguistics. Specialty in ancient Korean, with Chinese and Japanese for kicks. Not a usual combo. Which is why SG-6 got to drag him along on his very first trip through the 'Gate, being as Shangri-La speaks Koryo instead of Goa'uld, and the Tok'ra said the mission just couldn't wait a few damn weeks. Right?"

"Doctor?" Janet tried not to let her disbelief show on her face. The man _radiated_ being in charge. He was holding together a foursome as unruly as any SG team. A _captain_ was following him. _And he's a linguist?_

"Think I'm out of the habit of writing papers." Regal as a cat, Dr. Genjyo sat on her table. Carefully folded scribed silk, took off his chest ornament, and put both down together. Barely hesitated, before shrugging the top of his robes off to pool like cream around his waist.

Janet regarded the sleeveless black leather top and matching arm-guards, and held back an appreciative whistle. _Oh yes. Someone definitely has some issues._

Barely trembling, he removed the ring securing the right arm-guard, and bared an elbow for her.

_Make this quick_ , Janet told herself, locating the vein with steady hands. _Right now, the man feels naked._ God, she wished she'd known that five minutes earlier. She could have-

Done absolutely nothing, she reminded herself honestly. The man might have been SGC once, but he was almost _two years_ overdue. They _had_ to treat him as a potential security risk. Security wouldn't step out even if she asked them to. Dr. Genjyo was likely smart enough to know that.

"I'm sorry," Janet murmured, bending near as the vial filled. "One we've got you cleared, I'll arrange for exams with more privacy. And a male physician, if you'd feel more comfortable with one."

"I've been stripped naked and drained dry by experts, lady," he murmured back, eyes violet ice. "Do you really think your little pinprick is going to bother me?"

_Obviously it does._ But that would be the exact wrong thing to say to someone who'd evidently picked up O'Neill-style coping strategies. As in, hunt down the stupid bastard that'd hurt him, shoot it, shoot it some more, incinerate the corpse, and never, _ever_ talk about it again.

_And in the next twenty-four hours, the colonel's going to want to talk to these people. I should sell tickets_ , Janet thought with dark humor. "You're set."

The arm-guard went back on with the easy speed of a soldier pulling on familiar boots. Why was she not surprised?

"So… beds?" Sha prompted. "And maybe a toothbrush? All of ours are stuck in our packs. Which kind of got confiscated, and I hope no one's dropped them, given all of us carry some of Sanzo's ammo… what?"

Janet eyed Dr. Genjyo. "If you don't mind my asking, why is Captain Sha carrying your ammo? I'd think he has enough of his own-"

"I don't carry a gun," Sha broke in, obviously uncomfortable. "Not anymore."

"Why not?" Janet frowned.

"Too loud," Dr. Genjyo said evenly.

_Information by way of pulling teeth. Great._ "Then why do you still carry one?" Janet challenged.

"I'm the only one who needs one." The thin smile sent chills down her spine. "I'm human."

* * *

 

"Given the results of my analysis, I have a few doubts about that," Janet said candidly in the general's meeting room, lights playing across red hair in a pale imitation of the morning sunlight outside the Mountain. "He's not nearly as off standard human results as the other three, but there's definitely _something_ there that wasn't in his DNA two years ago."

Jack O'Neill took the report she handed over, and skimmed annoying medical-ese before handing it over to his much prettier and far more scientifically enthusiastic 2IC. "For some reason, Doc, I get the feeling you don't want us to mention it."

"Not if you can avoid it. At least for a while," Janet admitted. "Goku seems to be taking this as just another big adventure, but the rest of them are wound pretty tight. They _need_ Dr. Genjyo. And in my professional opinion, he needs about four weeks in Bermuda. Or better yet, a deserted island. Somewhere no one hostile can _touch_ him." She shook her head. "Whatever momentary lapse in judgment made him break Goku out in the first place, I think it's saved his sanity. If it weren't for the kid, who's obviously not trying to hurt you when he grabs on, I'm not sure he'd be able to touch _anybody_."

Major Carter was studying chemical breakdowns with a frown. "This protein profile…."

"Has a lot of similarities to you, your father, and other Tok'ra I've been able to examine," Janet nodded. "The telomere results are really striking. I don't think he'll notice for at least a few more years, but if nobody kills him, he'll probably outlive all of us." The doctor looked over SG-1. "I wouldn't mention that, either. I still don't know what the rest of the alterations might mean for his health, and I'd guess he's already suffering culture shock on top of the trauma of having been abandoned on an alien world."

Daniel winced. "We didn't-"

"Yeah, we did," Jack admitted. "We didn't have much choice in the matter, but we did. We can't dial any of Kanzeon's planets without her nifty little temporary talismans, and the Tok'ra were fresh out. Or so said Jacob and Selmak." He tapped the GDO, where it sat on the table among other interesting items. "This kind of implies otherwise, doesn't it?"

From the general's grimace, Hammond was thinking the same thing. "Let's not jump to any hasty conclusions, people. The Tok'ra have provided a great deal of useful intelligence as our allies."

Yeah. Some. The current ratio was about three good leads on Goa'uld forces to one massive screw-up. Not the kind of odds Jack liked.

"I find the revolver intriguing," Teal'c noted. "It is not of Tau'ri manufacture." At the general's raised brow, he elaborated, "O'Neill has loaned me volumes of _Jane's_."

"So… Kanzeon let one of her worlds get to the point of making gunpowder?" Carter's face threatened hypotheses at warp speed. "Wow. That's _weird_."

"Or it could have come by trade from some other world the Goa'uld ignore, like Orban." Daniel pushed his glasses up thoughtfully. "Which still implies there's a way to get onto the planet that the Tok'ra haven't told us about. We really need to talk to these people."

"I believe you should see the security footage, first." Hammond hit the projector.

Jack leaned back as the silver splash of a wormhole established shimmered on the screen, followed by a sealed iris, a received GDO code, and the iris retracting-

Sha jumped through first, looking like the winning end of a bar-fight. Grinned, turned - and got tangled up with a pair of pointy-eared, orange-skinned, clawed uglies that leaped through after him. The guards were yelling, and none of the brawlers seemed to care… but at least base security was holding their fire until they got answers. Good for them.

Cho Hakkai fell through next - and wasn't _that_ a weird thing to see happen to a Tok'ra? His very own ugly dance partner came through a split second later, but that seemed to be just fine, because apparently sometime the Tok'ra and Kwai-Chang Caine had sat down together for tea, and Hakkai _owned_ that alien's ass, kung fu-style, in about two seconds.

Which was just enough time for Captain Sha to toss one bad guy over his shoulder, pull some kind of staff with a bladed chain out of thin air - say _what?_ \- and proceed to start hacking.

Of which might best be said, eww.

Two more uglies, Dr. Genjyo, Goku, and a snake fell through-

_"Close the iris!"_ Sha yelled, slicing uglies Four and Five. Hakkai's head whipped around, face paling as he saw the snake and knew he wouldn't get to it in time….

The kid snatched it.

"Could have told him they bite," Jack grumbled. And felt his jaw drop, at the utter perfection of Genjyo's shot. "Leftie, huh?"

"Mixed-handed, mostly left. I'd say he's been shooting with both hands," Janet agreed, watching the remaining meet-and-greet. "I've had all the bodies x-rayed to make sure our lost sheep found all the Goa'uld; Dr. Warner's going to start autopsies later today. I can already tell you that their DNA profiles are altered human, and have a great deal in common with Goku, Hakkai, and the additions to Captain Sha's DNA. Only the deceased have claws, and our people apparently don't."

"Apparently?" Carter asked, as Daniel frowned and froze the image.

"I haven't gotten as good a look at their hands as I'd like. They were exhausted," Janet said plainly. "And Captain Sha specifically warned me, after Sanzo keeled over into bed, _not_ to let anyone try to wake him. 'Let me or Hakkai do it.'" She winced. "It seems so many people have tried to kill Dr. Genjyo, he's been known to wake up holding someone at gunpoint."

"He doesn't have a gun," Carter pointed out.

"Which is why Sha's worried he'll fall back on Plan B," Janet said dryly.

"What is Plan B?" Teal'c inquired.

"The captain wouldn't say," the doctor replied. "But he looked a little green around the gills thinking about it."

That from the guy who'd made like a Cuisinart on four living people. Okay. "Daniel?"

"He's wearing a rakusu," the archaeologist said, distracted. "At least, I think it's one. Though they're usually made out of cloth, not bamboo."

"And a rakusu is?" Jack asked, before Carter could beat him to the punch.

"Oh. I'm… not exactly an expert on Zen Buddhism. It's worn by somebody who follows the precepts. Affirm life, be giving, honor the body… I think there are sixteen, I'd have to look it up. But it's supposed to be a symbol of Buddha's garments, not armor. Then again, who knows if that's what it is, or what the Goa'uld did to the faith over the centuries, and given he's also wearing a kind of _kote_ \- armor sleeves - I'm guessing it's not really pacifistic anymore."

"Gun was kind of a dead giveaway," Jack pointed out.

"I carry a gun, Jack. He was on SG-6. Even if it was just for a few days."

"So he's armed," Carter noted. "Does it really matter why?"

"It might." Daniel pointed at the screen. "Red dot on the forehead?"

"I thought it might be makeup, but he washed his face and it didn't come off," Janet nodded.

"And this means?" Jack asked.

"I don't know. I read the file we have on Shangri-La from the Tok'ra information, and the little SG-6 and 10 were able to send back before the mission… went silent. I've started prehistoric digs with more data." The archaeologist grimaced. "Kanzeon's founding population seems to have come from across Southeast Asia; I've been able to pick out elements of Ancient Korea, Japan, China, and what might be a bit of India mixed in. On modern earth, that's called a _bindi_ , and it's worn by Hindu women, usually married. Go back ten or twelve centuries, though, and you find all kinds of people wearing it in ancient China; for beauty, and to protect against demons and evil fortune. And you say they called the variant humans _youkai_ , which is a Japanese word for supernatural creatures…. It's probably worn by a certain sect, or by someone considered an ascetic master. It could even be a caste mark; he's wearing white robes, the color of purity and death, and if that gun is local then he has the _right_ to be armed. Fits right in with the warrior or priest-king castes that turn up in a lot of groups with any Indo-European background."

"So, important guy," Jack summed up.

"Important, probably adopted guy," Daniel corrected. "He can't just go missing. Someone's going to be looking for him. Maybe a _lot_ of someones."

Great. Just what they needed; another Tok'ra diplomatic disaster.

"But that's not what really worries me." Daniel pointed at the kind-of stole draped across Genjyo's shoulders. "What do those letters look like to you?"

Like scribbles. What did Daniel think they looked like? But Jack rolled his eyes, and humored the man, peering closer-

Oh. Damn. "Ancient," Jack breathed. "Way different from what they carved on rocks, but that's Ancient." He glanced at Hammond. "Sir, Daniel's right. We need to talk to these people."

The general nodded, and glanced at Janet. "Dr. Fraiser. I'll leave it to your discretion how hard we can safely push; two of them are our people, one is a minor, and a Tok'ra should be an ally. But we need information." His hands tightened on the edge of the table. "We need to know if there are any other survivors, and if a rescue mission might now be possible."

_And we really need to know_ , Jack thought grimly, _just how a Tok'ra who didn't know Ra went ka-boom ended up with a GDO._

* * *

 

"So this is where you come from." Hakkai leaned back in the chair by Sanzo's bed, studying the hard, straight lines of lights and ceiling as he sipped what the locals called tea. It wasn't bad, just… not quite right. Like the cloth of his borrowed shirt and jeans, faded blue that pulled at skin and muscle in unfamiliar ways. Like the faint scent of smoke that wafted around some of their guards; a bitter, nose-numbing scent that wasn't at all like chi-soothing _mononoke-ha_. "Or is it? Not that you mind walls, especially when it's raining. But somehow, this place doesn't seem like you."

: _Gold hair in sunlight,_ : Hakuryuu imaged at him, curled under the fringe of it on the side of the pillow Sanzo's protective curl left empty. : _Blue sky. Silver hair, and gentle hands, folding orange paper into airplanes._ :

_Not again._ Though he should have expected it, Hakkai supposed. Under the stress of strangers, Sanzo's mind still sought Koumyou Sanzo - even though the man was over a year dead. The absence dredged up memories instead, and though this one wasn't bad, it'd inevitably lead into nightmares… or worse, the all too real memory of Koumyou's death.

: _Wing under wing, soaring with an injured dragon to safe landing._ :

"You know he hates meddling," Hakkai murmured.

: _Bleeding flockmate, delusional with spider venom, held down by claws and wings until the fever burns out,_ : Hakuryuu sniffed. : _Worry, preening - forgiven._ :

"Sometimes I wish he had claws to preen," Hakkai chuckled. "Dragons are much more practical."

But Hakuryuu had a point. When it came to soothing the rough edges of Sanzo's soul, forgiveness was _much_ easier to get than permission.

_And it's not just his rest at stake_ , Hakkai knew. _What we did, to escape Hyakugan Maoh's castle… what Sanzo did, to enter it, and then keep us all free…. I don't know this planet, these people. But if they're allies of the Tok'ra, I doubt they'd approve._

Something he doubted Gojyo had quite thought through, before leading them here. The man just wanted so badly to go _home_.

_I can't blame him. If I could go home to Kanan tomorrow - if I could make it so the past five years never happened…._

"Kyuu?" White fur and horns rubbed against his hand, imaging : _warm sun, sweet ice water, skilled fingers on itchy spots._ :

Hakkai smiled, and scratched as bid. _If Sanzo wanted to suffer alone, well… but he's not alone. We're here, and we need him._

And for that, he knew, Sanzo would forgive anything.

Resting fingertips under gold bangs, carefully avoiding the crimson chakra, Hakkai closed his eyes and let Hakuryuu and Sanzo's own empathy draw him in….

: _Rain. Blood. Gaping emptiness where a mentor's mind should be, swallowing the world._ :

: _Sunlight,_ : Hakkai insisted with Hakuryuu. : _Blue sky, streaked with high clouds. Sanzo's hands folding paper, to throw for an astonished Goku._ :

: _Sunlight…?_ :

Emboldened by the fading rain, Hakkai built more details, conjuring memory. : _Citrus-chewy taste of mochi, a bite blending with green tea. Mouth-watering scent of meat buns on a picnic plate, lying forgotten on cloth as Gojyo glared at the healer over a hand of cards-_ :

: _Hakkai. Paper fan. Whack!_ :

The healer blinked. Even in his mind, Sanzo made that _sting_.

: _"You're trying to make me feel safe."_ : A faint whisper; images of words and emotion. : _"Are we in Chang'an?"_ :

: _"No,"_ : Hakkai admitted. And was it a blessing or a curse, that they couldn't lie like this?

: _"Then we're not safe."_ :

: _Rest. Sleep. Healing,_ : Hakkai insisted. : _"I'm here. Nothing will harm you unless it comes through me."_ :

: _"…I know."_ : A breath, and : _hands clasping his, bare_ : as Sanzo almost never let his hands be bare, skin-to-skin carried emotion so _fiercely_ -

: _Trust,_ : Hakkai returned that image. : _Wingtip to wingtip, dancing in the wind._ :

A gentle shove from Hakuryuu, a light touch of healing energy… and Sanzo sank back into deep sleep, dreaming of dragons.

Someone cleared his throat. "Mind telling us what you're up to?"

_Abydonian_ , Gonou's memories labeled that language; not Goa'uld, but used on many of their planets. _Uh-oh._

Graying older man, dark eyes, clad in one of the ubiquitous green field uniforms but carrying it with an aura of leadership. A younger blond wearing glasses, peering at them like they were finger-puzzles to solve. A nervous blonde who felt of naquadah, and carried the rare scent of a dead symbiote. And a stern Jaffa, whose brow bore a golden symbol of the System Lords.

_They match Gojyo's description of SG-1._ Hakkai eyed Hakuryuu. _You couldn't have warned me?_

: _Strange flock, no feeling of predator,_ : the dragon imaged back serenely. : _Hakkai holding shield to negotiate, flattening idiots if hostilities threaten._ :

_Sometimes I wish I had that much faith in me._ "Please don't wake him," Hakkai said quietly in the same language. "I've stilled the nightmares for now."

"He has many bad dreams?" Dr. Fraiser asked, stepping out from behind them.

_So we do speak a language in common_ , Hakkai thought, relieved. _Well, a little; she's not fluent._ "We all do." He gestured toward the far end of the infirmary. "May we?"

"Why not." O'Neill's smile was about as friendly as Prince Kougaiji's stumbling on them without warning. Likely, for many of the same reasons.

_We've never hurt these people. But from what Gojyo tells me about the Tok'ra…._ "Are you Major Carter?" Hakkai asked the blonde.

"I am," she said warily, as they gathered in the doctor's office. "Did your symbiote know Jolinar?"

Hakkai _listened_ , but there was nothing more than the usual dark rumble, echoing sorrow and madness. "Probably. It felt like he recognized her name, when Gojyo first mentioned you."

"Felt like?" Dr. Jackson pounced. "You don't know?"

"We don't… talk much. Not that we ever did, even before-" Hakkai winced, trying not to recall Ni Jianyi's empty, triumphant smile, before the horrors began. Horrors he'd felt he deserved, after what his hands had done….

_"You're Cho Hakkai!"_ Gojyo's voice rang in his memory. _"Not Gonou. Never him. You're Hakkai. And don't you forget that!"_

"Who's Gojyo?" O'Neill asked warily. "And how does he know about Carter?"

Hakkai blinked, and shook his head. "Sha Gojyo. You call him - Joseph Sha?" He had to look at Samantha Carter again, even if it might be rude. He had to _see_. "You're real. I hoped you were. And… that's a terrible thing to hope, isn't it? That someone else understands your nightmares, because they've been there."

She blanched. Translating for Dr. Fraiser, Dr. Jackson put a hand on his teammate's shoulder. Teal'c and O'Neill regarded Hakkai narrowly. "Do you claim the Tok'ra took you as a host against your will?" Teal'c rumbled.

"If he'd asked… I would have done anything to get Kanan back, anything. But-" Hakkai swallowed, and closed trembling hands. "I know you need answers. And the others still need rest, so it might as well be me. After all, five years ago, I was a teacher…."


	2. A Very Small Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hakkai explains... no, that would take too long. Hakkai sums up. And glosses over a _lot._

"Sorry I'm late!" He pushed through the front door, schoolbooks in hand, ready for Kanan's fond smile and Gonou's disapproving scowl. Honestly, glad as he was to have found his sister again after all these years, he wished he'd been around to help her think twice about marrying a man so - stiff. And secretive. "I was seeing some students and lost track of the…."

Chairs overturned. A vase shattered on the floor, lily petals trampled underfoot. Kanan's tools of healing scattered across her examining table; careless disarray, and the gentle Kanzeon's Favored was _never_ careless-

Gonou, bleeding over the floor.

He dropped down beside the man, books falling where they would. "Hold on, I'll get help!" Not that he expected it to do much good. He'd seen enough injuries to know only one of Kanzeon's healers could save a man this far gone. _Kanan, where is-?_

Gonou's hand latched onto his shoulder, dragging him down.

_Strong; only youkai are this strong! Or-_

Bloody lips smashed against his, and there was no time to scream.

An eternity later, he watched the world through a haze, as his body stepped over the corpse on the floor and headed for the kitchen.

For the knives.

* * *

 

"I'll spare you the details." Hakkai sipped the last of his tea, and stared into the empty mug. "Hyakugen Maoh's people were looking for pretty girls, and a Tok'ra spy. I suppose one out of two isn't bad, for minions."

_"Goodbye, Gonou."_

His sister's voice ached in his memory, speaking to the demon inside him. She'd known. She'd known all along….

Hakkai blinked, trying to chase away the image of beloved hands taking his knife rather than bear the creature inside her. Praying, in the chaos left by his carnage, she'd be left dead long enough that not even a sarcophagus could revive her.

At least that prayer had been answered.

"Some of the survivors caught me. They handed me over to one of Gyokumen Koushu's scientists, the one who was running a lab there. Mostly experimenting on the Maoh's castoffs, when he didn't have his own projects to tend. He was… very interested to see if the youkai transformation worked on a host. And of course, he didn't want to use one of his Queen's children." Hakkai smiled thinly. "It takes a lot of effort, and time. But it does work. I really wouldn't recommend it."

"Youkai transformation?" Major Carter asked uneasily.

"Most youkai are born that way," Hakkai nodded. "They're sane. Well, as much as humans are. A little more prey-driven. But sane. But there are also… techniques, to transform the human - lifecode, I'm not sure of the word…."

"DNA?" Dr. Jackson suggested in English.

"Thank you," Hakkai smiled. "Transformed humans don't usually fare well. The shift in your senses, the shock of becoming other than yourself… most go insane. Which, I'm sorry to tell you, is what happened to some of the survivors from SG-6 and 10. I was - lucky." He shook his head. "Gonou wasn't."

"He cracked?" O'Neill said neutrally.

"He retreated," Hakkai stated. "Catatonic, I think is the word." Which was leaving a lot of truth unspoken, but better to let Sanzo handle that. "Gojyo was lucky as well, twice. First, that Ni Jianyi got to him later, and was more cautious; a partial transformation, instead of complete. Second - the youkai Ni used as a genetic donor found out about it. And he had very strong feelings about family. Even one, ah, _accidentally_ acquired…."

* * *

 

Hot. Loud. Smells tearing through his nose and tongue like fire, drowning the ache in spine and muscles as someone carried him. Only no human could carry him this way.

_Jaffa? Got to get away…._

"Easy, Sha Gojyo." It rumbled through his skin, almost a rough purr. "It's just a little farther."

_Who?_

"This isn't wise, Dokugakuji."

A quiet laugh, from the man carrying him. "You going to stop me, my lord?"

"…No." A low, frustrated growl. "It's not as if he's really-"

"Well, maybe not. But you didn't know about Lirin 'til she was half-grown, either."

"That's not the same!"

"Guess not." Claws carded through his hair, which… really ought to make him flinch. Only it didn't feel _wrong_. And something in the scent was-

Damn. Was he trying to get closer?

"Huh." The lord's voice, suddenly thoughtful.

"Good sign?" Dokugakuji asked.

"He's not fighting the shift." A pause. "Take the time you need. Just… don't get your hopes up."

"Thanks, Kou."

Steel clanged, and he was dumped onto a cot. Odd, new scents hit; one faintly mineral, like the taste of exotic salt. "W-what?" a new voice stammered.

A sweeter, softer chime, like silver on wood. "I hear you're someone who can use these," the lord said dryly.

"I'm not who you think." The despair in that voice was painful to hear. "I'm not _what_ you think."

"I don't care what you think. This man _doesn't exist_." The lord's voice dropped to a low growl. "Whether or not you do, is up to you."

Steel clanged again - a door? - and scents and footsteps retreated.

Harsh, panicked breathing. Not his. Daring, Sha cracked open an eye.

_Huh. Actually not too bright in here._  
   
Shadows moved against shadows, blurring into a dejected, brown-haired young man in the same kind of prison tunic he'd been shoved into. Staring down at something on the wall ledge that served for a table, the stranger shook his head in denial, light glinting off three silver cuffs on his ear-

Since when did prisoners wear jewelry?

_Limiters_ , Sha thought, chilled. _He's youkai._

_Like that bastard Ni is trying to make me._

Well. Anybody with a reason to hate Ni was worth getting to know better. "Hey," he croaked. Coughed, and tried again. "You look like hell."

Green eyes flicked to him, startled. " _I_ look like…?"

"I'm-" _don't mention Earth, damn, what do I say, nobody around here's named Joseph_ "-Sha Gojyo. Who are-" He coughed again, and couldn't stop.

Gentle hands, youkai-strong, helped him sit up. Rubbed his back, easing the worst spasms. Helped him sip water from a carved wooden mug, a taste of oak and stone and someone else's lips. "Hakkai," came the shy voice. "I'm Cho Hakkai." His new cellmate felt his forehead; leaned close, and sniffed at his neck.

"Hey, you're not nearly cute enough for-"

"In an hour or two, you're going to be delirious," Hakkai said plainly. "That'll last at least a day. If you're lucky, it'll be longer."

_"Lucky?"_

"Most people die the first day."

Sha blinked, taking that in. "Well, shit."

"I'm sorry."

"Hell, don't be sorry. Help me figure out a way to break out of here. Or at least stay sane long enough to break Ni's damn neck," Sha growled.

"Break out…?"

The disbelief in that tone might as well have been a red flag. "Don't," Sha said bluntly. "Don't you dare say it's impossible. Nothing's impossible. Not while you're still breathing." He took a breath. "I'm going to live, Hakkai. I'm going to beat this thing. And then I'm getting the hell out of here." He glared at wide, startled green. "You coming?"

"…I suppose if I said no, you'd drag me out with you."

"Damn right," Sha nodded. "Wouldn't leave my worst enemy in here."

For the first time, a faint smile appeared on Hakkai's face. "Then I guess there's really no choice." Standing, he crossed the room to the ledge, and slipped a platinum ring onto each middle finger.

"Uh… what are those?" Sha asked warily.

"Healing rings." Hakkai sat back down beside him. "I've… watched them used. But I've never…." Words ran out; he looked down.

_He's a host_ , Sha thought, stunned.

_…And right now, he's the only guy who gives a damn if I live or die._ "Go for it."

* * *

 

"That was a long week," Hakkai concluded, refilling his mug with water. "He saved my life."

"Think you've got that backwards," O'Neill said dryly.

"No." Hakkai met the colonel's gaze. "Gojyo believed so strongly that he could do it. I had to help." _I couldn't try to die anymore. Not when I could imagine the look on his face. Like Kanan's, when I got there too late._ "It took a few days, but the rings were close enough to a healing device that I figured it out. And then I finally had time to realize that no one was coming for either of us for experiments, anymore."

"Really," O'Neill drawled. "Just who is this Dokugakuji guy?"

_He's quick._ "One of Prince Kougaiji's armsmen," Hakkai said honestly. "He couldn't get us out, but he could move us to a different section of the dungeon. One Ni wasn't allowed into, that the Centipede Clan reserved for… hostages. The room wasn't much better, but the lack of needles was a definite plus."

"Decent of him," the colonel quipped.

"It wasn't as much of a gift as you might think," Hakkai smiled neutrally. "Gojyo looks _han'you_."

"Half youkai," Dr. Jackson put in, at the colonel's raised eyebrow.

"Well, that is technically what he is, isn't it?" Major Carter shrugged.

"Han'you are children of taboo," Hakkai said bluntly.

Dr. Jackson winced. "Miscegenation doesn't go over well?"

"It usually doesn't happen inside a legal marriage," Hakkai nodded. "Dealing with the other prisoners was sometimes… problematic." He shrugged slightly. "But we stayed alive."

"And just where was Dr. Genjyo during all this?" O'Neill asked, carefully casual. "Since he's _not_ youkai."

"He could have been part of the control group," Major Carter said, a little too sincerely.

_You know something_ , Hakkai concluded. _Oh dear._ But he let that realization slide over his reactions like glass. Whatever they might know, they didn't - couldn't - know what a Sanzo really was. Most of Shangri-La didn't know; not even the highest priests. "I don't think Ni believes in control groups. Dr. Genjyo wasn't experimented on-" _by Ni, at least_ "-because he wasn't there." Hakkai leaned back in his chair, apparently perfectly at ease. "Gojyo thinks SG-6 was trying to retreat across a bridge when someone finally got the heavy artillery aimed that direction. Sanzo doesn't talk about it, but he remembers hitting the water, dropping his pack, and trying to stay under as long as possible. But the river's very fast there. I'm told it's called Five Gorges, or River-spirit's Revenge…."

* * *

 

_Dark. And… cold. Hurts._

_I can hear water. The river?_

_"What's wrong?"_

Not English. A shadow. And light.

_"Hmm. Just now… I thought I heard a voice."_

Hands clasped his, and time spun away.

…And settled again, to soft sheets, the billow of curtains, and a firm, gentle hand on his shoulder. "Don't try to get up yet." Silver hair, but a young face; white robes, and a crimson dot on his forehead that almost glowed, even in the room's shadows. "I'm Koumyou Sanzo. You were in the river, badly hurt; we brought you to the temple. This is the first time you've really been conscious in weeks. Treat yourself kindly."

"Kouryuu," he answered the unspoken question. "You were there. I heard you. But the words sounded different." Like his own, shimmering and burning in his mind. "I'm Kouryuu-" He couldn't reach it.

"Shh." The hand moved to his forehead, silver ring and leather warm as skin. "Don't try to remember. Not yet."

"Amnesia," Kouryuu snorted, letting himself be soothed. "Never thought I'd get hit with something so lame."

: _"It's not exactly amnesia, young one."_ :

Violet eyes shot open. He tried to scrabble away-

: _Trust_ : wrapped him like cool fog, smothering fear. He _should_ be running, he should be….

: _"Run, and you will die, Kouryuu. And those waiting for your help will wait in vain."_ :

Koumyou's hands were on him again, easing him back to sit on the bed. And - he didn't _want_ to fight. "I don't understand." _What are you, what's happening to me, why do I feel so-?_

Safe. He felt _safe_. Like a child, cradled in his mother's arms.

: _"You're a bit old for an apprentice. I had to turn the clock back, for a time. Don't worry, you'll grow out of it."_ : Amusement tickled him. : _"Which almost seems a shame. You're adorable when you're asleep."_ :

Kouryuu reddened. "Apprentice?"

: _"Try not to talk too much, yet. You had a very stubborn accent; we need at least another day to have you speaking properly. The temple's already swamped with rumors because I took in an injured stranger. If Gyokumen Koushu's forces realized they'd missed a target… well."_ :

Gyokumen Koushu. Consort of Gyumaoh, who'd been sealed away by the gods. Youkai, and Goa'uld Queen.

_How do I know that?_

: _"It would seem very strange if a priest in training didn't know tales of the gods, don't you think?"_ : Koumyou winked at him.

He had to smile back. Even if part of him was still vaguely convinced he should be running for the hills. "You said… someone needs me." He drew a breath. : _"How do I find them?"_ :

: _Yes! Correct!_ :

Delighted approval, warm as sunlight. Kouryuu had to fight the urge to lean into it and just bask.

: _Ruffling stubborn gold hair,_ : came the amused image. : _"You weren't alone. But the others have certainly been captured by now. They may be alive; they may not. Shelter with me, and I will show you how to seek word of their fate, while we teach you how to pass unnoticed."_ : A chuckle. : _"Or at least, no more noticed than I am."_ :

Somehow, Kouryuu was sure you couldn't _not_ notice Koumyou. It'd be like closing your eyes to an earthquake. : _"I need to remember who I am!"_ :

: _"You will,"_ : came the promise. : _Trust. Breathe. Be._ : Interweaving their fingers, Koumyou leaned against him, forehead to forehead-

_Oh._

Breathing two breaths. Blood pulsing through two hearts.

The world was so _clear_.

Koumyou let go, and they were two again. "If I stay in here too much longer, an acolyte will come ask me to lecture on philosophy. I think I'd be better off in the garden, instead." He stepped toward the window. "It'd be appropriate for my apprentice to accompany me."

He needed Koumyou's steadying hand to scramble over the sill, but he made it.

* * *

 

"Fortunately, Koumyou Sanzo was known to be a bit eccentric," Hakkai informed them, picking his words with delicate care. It wasn't lying. Exactly. "Once he pulled Kouryuu from the river, he allowed the rumor to spread that the stranger was actually a holy young monk from the mountains, who'd been persecuted by jealous evil spirits to the point that he threw himself into the river and prayed for purification. Which, obviously, worked." The healer chuckled. "It's the best kind of story; everyone _expects_ Sanzo to deny it, because only a complete boor would boast about such a sign of divine favor."

Teal'c eyed him skeptically. Major Carter frowned. Dr. Jackson translated for Janet, looking worried. "And what did this Koumyou get out of it?" O'Neill asked dryly.

"Someone to talk to, who didn't expect him to be a pinnacle of holiness?" Hakkai shrugged. "I didn't really have a chance to meet him." _Poor Sanzo._

O'Neill smirked, like Gojyo with a winning hand. "So he got robes and a gun. Tell me they don't ask him to make it rain."

_Not twice._ "That's - ah - more the gods' department. Though he does sometimes end up preaching." Better not to say too much about the sermons. Lectures on holy hypocrisy, refusing to attack youkai who didn't attack you first, and the necessity of higher stopping power if you _did_ start shooting - well. He had no idea how seriously these people took their gods, and he didn't feel inclined to find out.

"We don't impersonate gods," Dr. Jackson said worriedly. "Or priests."

O'Neill cleared his throat.

"The emissary of Ra thing was an accident, Jack."

"Worked out in the end," the colonel noted. "But given that Dr. Genjyo is a member of the SGC, he'd better have a damn good reason."

"Does being able to get past Hyakugen Maoh's security count?" Hakkai asked mildly.

"How would pretending to be a priest help you do that?" Major Carter asked.

"It took months, but he finally managed to track down rumors of the foreigners who'd fallen into Gyokumen Koushu's hands," Hakkai told them. "And then he knew he had a problem. The palace was strong, and well-defended. There was no way one person, or even a small group, could break in by force. Stealth was also out; after I'd killed my way in, they found those holes in security and plugged them. So there was really only one thing to do." Hakkai smiled. "Walk right in through the front door."

Silence.

"Never thought I'd say this," O'Neill said at last, "but I think I'm gonna order someone to go see Mackenzie."

"Jack!" Dr. Jackson hissed.

"Walking into a Goa'uld fortress, alone? Exactly how is that _not_ crazy?"

"It's not, if you have a legitimate reason to be there," Hakkai shrugged. "Your people didn't officially exist, but any accused murderer has the right to a trial. The Centipede Clan had enough allies in the shadows to make most civil authorities look the other way in my case, but when Koumyou Sanzo publicly pointed out the breach of law…." He smiled wryly. "I can't imagine what it took for Kouryuu to go through with it, that first time. Centipede youkai have eaten priests before…."

* * *

 

_I am so dead._

A few precise steps behind Master Koumyou as they walked up the castle road, Kouryuu swiped at the sweat beading on his forehead. Not good; not good at all. Youkai could smell fear, and while any priest might be nervous walking into Centipede territory, he'd never be able to get down to the prisoners if they suspected anything.

_But I can't stop. If any of the teams are still alive, and it sounds like at least some of them could be - I'm all that's left. I've got to-_

"My." Master Koumyou halted in the shade of a flowering cherry. "What a lovely place for a smoke."

Kouryuu clapped a hand to his face in disbelief. "Master, the castle guard-"

"Will wait." Koumyou lit his pipe, and drew in silver-blue smoke.

Sighing, the linguist turned apprentice set his pack down. In this mood, you'd have to be a tsunami to get Master Koumyou to move. And a tsunami wouldn't _dare_.

_At least I remember "tsunami" these days,_ Kouryuu reflected. Though he couldn't fault Koumyou's judgment in setting the memory-blocks in the first place. All of Shangri-La had been in an uproar after that disastrous mission. One hint of alien custom or language, those first few weeks… the youkai Queen's children might be legally banned from temple grounds, but that had never stopped assassins before.

There were still pieces of his memory missing, though Koumyou assured him the last of the blocks should crumble within a few weeks. It didn't bother him, really; not as much as the odd sense of disconnect he felt, sometimes. Like every returning bit of self had to be picked up, reexamined, and set back… not quite where it had begun. As if the man who'd fallen into the river months ago was - not him, but an old acquaintance, wistfully remembered.

_Did I die that day?_

"In a sense," Koumyou murmured. "We all die, every day. But yes. I found you, cut the threads of your life, and rewove them to my purpose." Solemn eyes regarded him from under silver bangs. "Are you angry?"

Kouryuu coughed, and waved away a drift of smoke. Maybe the raw edges in his mind needed the peace of _mononoke-ha_ , almost as much as Koumyou did, but he definitely preferred a cigarette over the pipe variety. "I think you deserve a kick in the ass."

His master chuckled.

"But I'm not angry," Kouryuu said quietly. "I remember… I wasn't trained enough. I wasn't fast enough. It was supposed to be a simple mission, and then it _wasn't_ , and-" His fists clenched.

"And all you could do," Koumyou said levelly, "was deny your enemy her triumph." Silver hair tilted. "You were victorious then. Why do you fear now?"

"They need me," Kouryuu admitted. "They need somebody, and I'm the one they've got, and I'm going to screw up, I can feel it - I think about going in there, and I can't stop shaking-"

_"Muichimotsu."_

_Hold nothing._ "I'm not a very good apprentice, Master. How can I hold nothing, when I have to do this?"

"Hmm." A slight nod. "I'd thought, by this time, you knew the difference between attachment and dharma."

_The force of my past actions, as a member of the SGC? No, wake up; he said dharma, not karma. The truth of my soul; conduct appropriate to my essential nature._

_My goal is to get them out. But my nature-_

_My_ nature _is to spit in Gyokumen Koushu's eye, and send her back to hell._

His hands weren't shaking anymore.

_If we live, we live. If we die, we die. Any way you slice it, I'm going to do enough damage to that lab to give her a_ really _bad day._

_Which means - I win._

"Ah, my pipe is empty," Koumyou sighed. "Coming?"

"I still think you're humoring a crazy man, Master," Kouryuu muttered, shouldering his pack.

"Oh?" : _Amusement._ : "And why is that?"

_Do I have to say it again? It was embarrassing enough the first time._ "Told you a month ago. I keep thinking I hear a voice." But not Master Koumyou's. Young, and scared. A child, maybe. Or an animal.

: _Lonely, cold chains - desperation to fly, breathe,_ see _something other than stone._

: _"Please. Someone. Anyone! Don't leave me here…."_ :

"Well." The Sanzo priest shrugged. "It doesn't seem like all that long ago that _I_ heard a voice. In the river." A slightly wicked smile. "This one's all yours."

"…Hate you."

As they met the first sneering, spear-carrying youkai, Master Koumyou was laughing.

* * *

 

"So they got in," Hakkai continued. "But as Gojyo once said, no plan survives contact with the enemy."

"Gee, and it sounded like such a perfect plan," O'Neill said dryly. "What could _possibly_ go wrong?"

"Odd," Hakkai glanced at Dr. Jackson. "He doesn't _look_ related to Dr. Genjyo."

The archaeologist stifled a snicker. Major Carter glanced away, suspiciously bright-eyed. Even the Jaffa's measured stillness seemed a little less intense.

"Think I'd know if there were any Genjyos hanging in my family tree, thanks." The colonel leaned back against the wall. "How's a blond end up with a name like Kouryuu Genjyo, anyway?"

_So that's strange here?_ Hakkai wondered. There were plenty of blonds on Shangri-La. It was Sanzo's eyes that frightened people; the hellish, piercing violet of _akuma_.

"I didn't get to know him while he was here - we were offworld a lot - but I think I overheard someone mention insane Japanophilic parents," Dr. Jackson offered.

"Given that, who knows, sir?" Major Carter said, almost innocently. "There could be an O'Neill in there somewhere after all."

"Funny. Very funny." The colonel tapped on Janet's desk. "So what went wrong?"

"Before or after the maze, the pit trap, or the hallucinogenic gas?" Hakkai said ruefully. "Did I mention Ni is a sadist? The castle's external security was normal, but the internal security of the lab and most of the dungeons was under his influence. I think his toys took out as many guards as Dr. Genjyo did…."

* * *

 

Staring through the bars at the faint light that made it to the bottom of the castle gorge, Son Goku listened to the weird sounds echoing through stone. And wondered. He'd heard sounds like these a few times before, some time ago. How long ago, he had no way to know; there had been sunlight, and snow, between then and now, but he hadn't known how to count.

_One, two, three, four, five_ , he ticked off on thumb and fingers now, hugging that flicker of _difference_ to his heart. He didn't know when it had happened. One day, he'd just woken up, and - there had been words.

_Stone. Chains. Light._

_Lonely…._

Which was kind of odd, because he wasn't _always_ alone. Every once in a while, a dark-haired man in a white coat would come down and stare at him through the bars, with empty, hungry eyes….

He'd rather be alone than near those eyes. Rather be chained, behind the bars none of the strange man's _things_ could breach. Eventually the man had stopped trying. He just kept coming back, who knew how many nameless gaps of time, to stare.

Better for the man not to be there. Better to be in the empty cave, alone.

But he was so lonely.

Footsteps. And a scent that wasn't the empty man's.

"Hey."

Plain robes. Hair gold as sunlight. Violet eyes that were wary and : _scared,_ : but alive.

"You the one who's been calling me?"

"I haven't been calling anyone," Goku said honestly. Warm. This man felt _warm_. "Who are you?"

"You're lying. I've heard you all this time." The blond stepped toward the gap in the bars.

Goku winced. _Not gonna work, the forceshield's gonna throw him out like everyone else-_

-Stepped _through_ the gap, without a flicker of warding energy. "Now cut the act," the blond went on. "It's annoying." He glanced at the chains. "How the hell do we get you out of-"

So warm. He had to try to touch. Even if there was no way anyone could get him out of here. He knew; he'd pulled against these chains with all his strength.

Fingers met, and metal crumbled to dust.

"Right. As if my life wasn't weird enough already," the blond grumbled. "Come on. I've got to get back in there, and find someone who's _not_ you. Crazy dungeons and crazy scientists and crazy trapdoors… where are your parents?"

"Don't have any." Goku skipped after him, eyes wide as they passed the bars, wider as he stepped into real sun for the first time in… well, _ever_. "I was born from a rock egg. 'Least, that's what I remember." Not that he remembered much, after that endless _alone_. But that part was clear.

"Why do I even ask?" Backtracking to a stone door along the ledge, the blond took out something heavy and metal-

_Gun_ , Goku suddenly knew, and understood what some of those sounds had been.

"Look, kid," the blond said levelly, not looking at him. "I'm heading back into serious trouble. I might get killed. I'm definitely going to have to kill somebody else before I get out of here. I'm _not_ getting a kid killed with me. Find someplace else to go."

Goku blinked. "But I wanna stay with you."

"I don't have time to argue-"

And they really didn't, because the door opened onto a lot of angry, armed youkai, all of whom seemed bent on killing his new friend.

But he was out of the cage. And his blood was alive, and these guys were _so slow_ ….

Grinning, Goku danced through the bullets.

* * *

 

"Goku's not as harmless as he looks," Hakkai said simply. "Between them, they managed to get past the guards into our part of the dungeon." He chuckled. "I don't think I'll ever forget the look on Gojyo's face."

* * *

 

_Joseph_ , Sha told himself, giving the warding bracer another shake. Not that he expected any different results from the last time; the tiny chains attached that somehow blocked his access to chi jingled, and the world pitched slightly sideways. But it was worth it, to remind himself who he _should_ be. _Joseph. Not Gojyo._

He'd had training on prisoner psychology. He _knew_ what Dokugakuji was up to, even if the youkai himself might not. Give someone starved for human contact someone to latch onto. Combine that with the intermittent reward of getting _out_ of this damn cell, and getting to try his best to pound that same irritating enemy-acting-like-duty-bound-big-brother into the ground, even if there were _always_ enough Centipede guards to make sure he had no chance to make a break for it….

And always, always, being pushed toward that new, nonhuman part of his nature. Because it was _that_ part that could read Dokugakuji's scent to know when the fight was sparring, or when it was deadly real. And _that_ part that could reach out to the world's chi and start to _shape_ it, the way Dokugakuji spun a sword from thin air and Prince Kougaiji summoned fire.

That part, the warding bracer blocked. He should be grateful for that. He should.

_Hell, Dokugakuji probably thinks he's doing me a favor. Clan's everything to these people. He's… not a bad guy._

Which made the whole mess even worse.

Another warding bracer jingled faintly, as Hakkai sat down beside him. "Gojyo, if you knock yourself out again, I think I might leave you there for a while. And enjoy the quiet."

Sha chuckled, summoning a truly awesome comeback-

Yells.

Gunshots.

Groans.

" _Allie-allie-oxen-free!"_

He bolted toward the barred window in the cell door, cursing the smoked glass that didn't let you really _see_ from inside. _"Hey!"_ he yelled. _"Hey, over here!"_

"What's going on?" Hakkai was close behind him, in one of those deceptively calm stances that meant he was ready to break bones. "What are you saying?"

"What's going on, my friend, is a rescue." Grinning fiercely, Sha inhaled the scent of gunpowder. _"Damn, you guys took your sweet time,"_ he swore, as someone fumbled at the lock. Must be kneeling to present a smaller target, he ought to see some of the guy through the window-

The door opened, key dangling in the hand of a gold-eyed, brown-haired teenager. And if that diadem wasn't a high-powered limiter, he'd eat Hakkai's manacle.

_A youkai kid?_

"Are these the guys you're looking for?" the kid asked.

"Damn well better be," came the grim snarl, as a gun-toting priest took a step closer to them, ready to fire at anything coming from the guard station. _"I've been through this entire. Damn. Dungeon. Lab included. I doubt I'll sleep for a week. Didn't have time to more than skim the records - is anybody else on the teams still alive in here? Anyone?"_

The words were English, but there was _nothing_ else about the guy that said Earth. Even the gun was local. What the hell?

"My," Hakkai said mildly, stepping out with a fey light in his eyes. "It seems to be a very _small_ rescue."

_You're telling me,_ Sha thought, stunned. He barely registered the sudden lightness as the kid used a second key to take their bracers off. Though it was impossible to miss the rush of energy, as the world seemed to snap back into focus. _"Where's your backup?"_

_"There is no backup. Coming, or would you rather rot here?"_ A breath. "Cho Hakkai?" the priest said.

"Yes?" the healer said warily, flexing fingers in a way Sha knew meant he was about to pull one of his own beginner's chi tricks out of a hat.

"It is the will of the Sanbutsushin, speaking for the merciful goddess Kanzeon Bosatsu, that you be released from Centipede Clan custody and returned to the Temple of the Setting Sun in Chang'an, there to stand trial for your many crimes," the priest said formally.

"Hey, wait a minute," Sha started. _I thought you were SGC!_

"By any means necessary." The priest smirked as Sha sputtered. "If you intend to defend yourself all the way out of here, I'm not going to stop you."

Hakkai smiled. "I see."

_Not sure what's going on, but - get out first, ask later,_ Sha decided.

"Unlock the next door, hand somebody the keys, and get back here," the priest directed the kid. Raised his voice, to ring through the entire hostage wing. "The Centipede Clan and this castle's lords have opposed the will of the Sanbutsushin! Hostage-bonds cannot hold for members of a dead clan. Serve your lords' honor, and save your lives!"

Sha blinked. _Did he just-?_

There was a swelling roar, and cell doors started banging open.

_Yep, he did._

And _now_ Sha remembered the face, even if it was matched to a take-no-prisoners attitude that had to have been buried miles deep under the nervous academic who'd traveled off Earth for his very first time. "You know, that temple's going to be really ticked at your using their reputation for this," he stated. "Dr. Genjyo."

The linguist snorted, almost smiling. "Let's go."

* * *

 

"So he led us out," Hakkai said plainly. And hesitated. _Sanzo's still grieving. I won't give them a knife to touch his scars. But if I say nothing, they'll_ know _where to attack._

So. The unadorned truth. With luck, it'd be enough to turn away curious eyes. "What Dr. Genjyo didn't know was, Koumyou Sanzo had no intention of leaving the castle after the chaos began. The Centipede Clan had been part of the criminal network in the area for a very long time. I'd killed the former Hyakugen Maoh, and most of the clan, but the survivors were still a force to be reckoned with. And they were rebuilding their power, corrupting new temple officials, starting the killings and kidnappings again. Koumyou had a very strong sense of justice. He wanted it finished."

"And it got him killed," O'Neill concluded.

"It did," the healer nodded. "Once we were out of the castle - it made a _lovely_ bonfire - Dr. Genjyo led us to one of the campsites he'd stored gear at the week before." Which had finally let Gojyo believe their rescue might have been planned enough to work out after all. No one could have smuggled gear, local clothes, and medical supplies into the castle without raising suspicion. "He showed us where everything was, told us who was most likely to wander by, and gave us a cover story to tell them. And then-" Hakkai mimed utter collapse. "Stress, I think."

"Boy, I know that one," Dr. Jackson muttered.

_Good_ , Hakkai thought. Let them add their own details. It had been stress, after all - just not only from the rescue.

But unless Sanzo himself said otherwise, there were some things the SGC did not need to know.

* * *

 

Warmth and wood-smoke. One of the clothing bags, stuffed under his head as a makeshift pillow. Hushed voices; which was a good thing, because he had a splitting headache, he knew where his gun was, and it'd be a shame to kill anybody after all he'd done to get them out….

_Master._

Emptiness, where familiar emotions should be. He would _not_ curl up into a ball and cry. It wasn't his nature. Ever.

_Hold nothing_ , Koumyou had willed him. This grief… Koumyou wouldn't want it. Not when there was so much left to do.

_Get Cho Hakkai and the Maten Sutra back to the temple_ , he ticked off. _We won't be able to use transport rings, so it'll be a long walk. Organize the supplies, see what else we need, follow the route I marked beforehand that should have the least number of Centipede allies. Once we hit the temple, find someplace to put Goku. There are youkai there I know, who should be okay - even with the trouble that's been going on, I doubt Koushu's people could have got to them to tamper with minds in Chang'an. Somebody ought to be able to take him in. Do… I don't know,_ something, _with Captain Sha. He looks han'you, worse luck for him, but he was tough enough to get this far. Not my fault if he can't pick up some kind of life…._

_Heh. Yeah. I'm just a river of good ideas today. So what do I do with myself?_

Grimacing, he buried his face in the bag. Maybe he'd get lucky, and the planet would get swallowed up by a black hole before he had to face the world again.

"Sanzo?" Goku leaned over him, a blaze of : _worry_ : and : _hope_.: "Hakkai made us tea. It's really good!"

_Sanzo. Not likely._ But he hadn't bothered giving the kid a name before, too busy shooting, and Goku had heard Koumyou call him that. He'd straighten the little monkey out. Later. Tea… tea wasn't nearly strong enough to drown out the noise in his head. But Sha probably wouldn't take kindly to seeing him down enough sake to KO a horse. _Damn it, Koumyou, you said I had this under control!_

"Here." Hakkai's hands, pressing a warm cup into his-

: _Grief. Faint, bewildered hope. Run? Surrender to merciful death? Bitter thread of alien, keening loss and madness…._ :

It was flames and barbed wire raking at his soul, and he was backed into a corner of the little woods shrine, shaking, tea slipping over the floor where he'd slapped hands away, and he _wanted_ to shoot, but it was Hakkai, he'd walked into hell to save the man, and he wouldn't-

_What's wrong with me?_

"Hey!" Sha, jagged edges of : _anger_ : and : _guilty worry_.: "Don't you dare get high and mighty, just because you think he's supposed to be a prisoner-"

"Gojyo, _stop_."

Hakkai. Hakkai was - standing between them, : _startled,_ : blocking some of Sha's : _anger_.:

_I feel them. Where they are. I could shoot them without even looking. Without scratching Goku._

_Don't touch the gun, if you touch it you might use it…._

"There's no blood." Goku sounded confused. "Why does he smell hurt if I can't smell blood?"

"I think it might be another kind of injury," Hakkai said thoughtfully. "How does hurt smell, Goku?"

"Scared. And… like the way you guys smell when he shoots and it's too loud. All-over hurt."

"The hell?" Sha protested. "Hakkai, you barely touched the guy!"

"Touching may make it worse. I think he was reacting like this last night, as well. Flinching when any of us came near. Except for…." A ring of metal, and liquid pouring. "Goku. Try to take this to him."

"Um. Okay?" Tentative footsteps, carrying burning : _worry_.: "Sanzo? You gotta open your eyes so you can take this."

"No," Genjyo gritted out, reaching out with a shaking hand. "I know where you are."

His hand closed on the cup, barely brushing : _friendly, upset_ : fingers. His breath hissed - but Goku wasn't angry, and he wasn't in pain. He could deal with it. A little.

The tea was good. At least for the headache. Didn't do a damn thing about the _loudness_.

"Okay, I'm officially creeped out," Sha said warily. "Hakkai? You seem to know what's going on."

"I'm not sure," Hakkai said thoughtfully. "But I did read _The Pine Tree's Moon_ a few years ago."

"…You realize that still leaves me totally clueless."

"I need to take you to a book-lender," Hakkai laughed softly. "Goku, too. It's a romantic adventure. Dragons, wicked uncles, deadly curses… but what I remember most is one of the characters who helped the hero along his way. He was a Sanzo priest, too. 'Who, like a wild dragon, saw clearly into the hearts of men and demons, and often did not like what he did find.'" A shift of cloth that felt of a : _shrug_.: "I thought it was poetic license; everyone _knows_ dragons always know who means them harm, but since when are humans or youkai part dragon? But Gonou… Gonou's memories say some species, like the Asgard, really _can_ read minds."

"We really need to get you into the sun more," Sha said at last. "In case you hadn't noticed, that guy's human."

"And I'm not a Sanzo," Genjyo agreed, trying to close down that : _listening_ : as much as he could. It didn't seem to want to dim.

: _Curiosity_ : sharpened. "But that was one of the divine sutras, wasn't it?" Hakkai asked carefully. "One of the five scriptures used to establish Heaven and Earth. He trusted you with it."

It was a heavy weight in his sleeve, alien tech pretending to be a scroll. For now. "The Maten Sutra." Koumyou had protected that one, if not the Seiten Sutra. Or himself.

"He asked you to call it to you," Hakkai persisted.

"Which was really, really freaky," Sha muttered. "Cloth? _Not_ supposed to float like that. Or turn into scrolls."

"It's not?" Goku asked.

"No," Sha said, dripping : _disbelief_ :. "Where did you _find_ this kid?"

"He was dying, and it was what he wanted," Genjyo said simply. "I'll guard it until we reach the temple." Privately, he agreed with Sha. Mostly. He knew just enough about what the sutra might be to be very uneasy carrying it. Despite, or make that especially because of, how _right_ it had felt. Like a falcon soaring to his hand; _choosing_ to be there, when it had the power to fly free.

"I doubt most priests could do that," Hakkai noted.

"I'm not a priest." He rubbed tired eyes, daring to look at them. "I don't know what Gojyo told you about us, Hakkai… I needed shelter. And Master Koumyou needed someone to keep the temple from pestering him to choose a successor." _We had a deal. No more, no less._

_…So I feel like someone ripped my heart out and spit-roasted it. That's my problem._

Goku sat down, and planted his hands on his knees. "I don't get it. He said you _were_ a priest."

_Be strong, priest Genjyo Sanzo._ And then, the blood…. "Sometimes he had a strange sense of humor."

"Yes… I'd say it was very strange," Hakkai murmured. "It's a beautiful morning. Do you think fresh air might help?"

Fresh air. Meaning outside. Meaning _away_ from them. Good idea.

Early morning sunlight and a light breeze finished off the ache in his head; distance turned the volume of others' emotions down a notch. He grabbed the respite and shook it 'til its teeth rattled.

_Basics. Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out. Hold. Let the thoughts come, but let them go. Listen to the water…._

_Ow._

It was as bad as the first days in the temple, trying to dodge the jealousy, careless arrogance, and deep-seated infighting of the real monks. Worse; he was used to having some degree of control over what he : _heard_ ,: and… controlled, this wasn't.

_And they wondered why Koumyou couldn't stand most of them. Hell, I'm surprised he could stand me._

But that was the past. Focus on now. He stalked off toward the nearby stream, deliberately ignoring the : _wary curiosity_ : and : _worry_ : tiptoeing along behind. Flowing water was one of the few physical phenomena that could mute emotions at all, to the point that Koumyou had drilled into him the habit of paying particular attention near rivers, in case of ambush.

_Oh_ , please _ambush me. I've still got bullets left._

Nothing. Damn it. He sighed, and turned toward rippling water, shaking out a cigarette and lighter. Might as well look the new killer straight in the eye, after all. He didn't know what he should be feeling, after a catastrophe like the castle, but no one could kill as many people as he had yesterday and not be marked by it-

_No._

"Gojyo was apparently raised somewhere very far away, so I suppose he didn't realize what it meant," Hakkai said levelly, still carefully yards away. "But it's said the crimson chakra is the sign of those chosen by Heaven, and closest to the gods."

_No._ Hell, _no. He didn't - he_ couldn't _have-_

"Master," he'd said once, months ago, "I know I'm picking things up as fast as I can. But how can anyone think I'm qualified to be your apprentice? The temple's full of people who've studied their whole lives-"

"Studied," Koumyou stated. "Not lived." Silver hair shook. "The power of the sutra should never be held by one whose only view of that universe is the straight paths of the temple grounds. Who has never threaded their way through the twisting, bloody trails of the world, that all men and youkai walk in sorrow and joy."

"Master…."

"Kouryuu. There are no requirements to be a Sanzo priest," Koumyou had said bluntly. "I seek an apprentice with a strong body, and stronger heart. The temple can say what it likes. The choice of my heir is mine, and only Kanzeon's to approve or deny." He'd smiled then, setting the topic aside. "Now, shall we practice that throw again? You're getting too perilous for the acolytes, poor boys…."

The sutra stretched itself out of being a scroll, rustling from his sleeve to settle over his shoulders like a contented tiger. The way it had for Koumyou. The way it should only do for a-

_Be strong, priest Genjyo Sanzo._

* * *

 

_No_ , Hakkai thought, almost wincing as he recalled the resulting indignant yell that had all but shattered his eardrums. _The SGC_ really _doesn't need to know about that._

Nor did they need to know about the week of hell that had followed, as Sanzo battled his way back to some level of control over his empathy. Apparently an apprentice's amount of sensitivity was far below that bestowed by the chakra.

_And we still don't know how that happened._ The young, still vaguely religious teacher in him was half-convinced it _was_ a sign from the gods. The demon-slayer who'd been bombarded with centuries of memory of Goa'uld science and technology had added up what Sanzo had told him about his apprenticeship, and the _oddness_ in Sanzo's body that feverish night that his healing wouldn't touch, and suspected the man was most likely the victim of a highly sophisticated biological deadman's switch.

_A Sanzo is a Sanzo until he chooses a successor and dies._

He didn't know if Koumyou had meant to die that day. He hoped not, for Sanzo's sake. But if Kanzeon _was_ involved in who was chosen - even the Tok'ra didn't know that Queen's plans. If she even had plans, beyond watching the show as mortals lived their lives.

_Well, that's not quite fair. She did aid us, when all seemed lost._

Not much. But then, Sanzo wouldn't have had it any other way.

"Interfering old hag," the priest had glared - at a _Queen_ , even as she smirked back and muttered something about idiot nephews. If Hakkai had ever had doubts about following Sanzo, they'd have died that day.

"Earth to Hakkai?" O'Neill looked at him askance.

"I'm sorry," the healer apologized, guiltless. "I don't like to remember the trial. Even if it did end… well, not badly."

"There really was a trial?" Major Carter blurted. "But why would Dr. Genjyo-"

"O'Neill." Teal'c eyed the door.

_I suppose it was too much to ask Goku to stay quiet_ , Hakkai thought ruefully.

The colonel yanked open the door, apparently unfazed by the dragon and trio in borrowed civilian garb leaning close on the other side. "Ears burning?"

"Old habit?" Gojyo shrugged.

"Hah." A crook of O'Neill's finger beckoned everyone out of the office. "Want to explain why you hauled an innocent guy to some kangaroo court when you knew he wasn't guilty?"

"Jack," Dr. Jackson sighed.

"I didn't know he wasn't guilty," Sanzo said levelly. "And if you think Cho Hakkai is _innocent_ , you don't know him very well."

_How very true_ , Hakkai reflected, darkly amused. How could he be, after all? He didn't regret all the deaths. Not even most of them.

Gojyo rolled his eyes. "Lay off the sarcasm for once, will you? They don't know _you_ well enough to figure it out." He shrugged at the colonel. "You have to remember most hosts on Shangri-La volunteered. Which means when a Goa'uld goes over the edge like this-"

"The host is considered willing and complicit in the symbiote's actions, unless sufficient and tangible proof is presented otherwise," Sanzo stated flatly. "In this case, there was such evidence, beginning with the fact that Gonou was not listed in any temple as having been chosen of Kanzeon's Favored, and ending with the testimony of the survivors of Cho Hakkai's village. The _very few_ survivors." The priest held the colonel's gaze, unflinching. "Gonou didn't just go after the Centipede Clan. He warmed up on everyone he thought should have protected Kanan, first. _Massacre_ pretty much describes it." Violet flicked to green. "I'm sorry."

"So am I," the healer whispered.

"I'll spare you the technicalities," Sanzo went on. "Gonou was found guilty, but insane. After a period of parole, Hakkai was released on his own recognizance. And for some unknown reason, he decided to stick around with the rest of us."

"Unknown?" Hakkai said lightly, giving the priest a frank glance.

Goku straightened up, worried. "Hakkai-"

"It's all right." The healer ruffled brown hair. "I don't mind if they know."

"Yeah? Well, I mind," Gojyo grumbled. "I still think we should dial up Cimmeria, and to hell with the Tok'ra alliance."

"Right. And strand Hakkai somewhere he doesn't know the language, with no way home?" Sanzo countered, as he had so many times before. "I'm not leaving one of my people like that. Not if there's another way."

"And I don't want to kill him," Hakkai reminded the han'you. He glanced over a skeptical SG-1. "He lost the woman he cared for, and he went insane. I can't wish anyone dead for that." He drew a breath. "But I won't let him hurt anyone else using me." _Never again._

"How do you intend to stop him?" Teal'c asked bluntly.

Sanzo stared back. "We will."

_No matter what it takes_ , Hakkai knew. Sanzo _would_ shoot him, if there were no other way to stop Gonou. Sometimes, knowing that was the only way he could sleep.

"But if you've got a way to get Gonou out, we'd love to hear it," Gojyo said easily.

"We'll look into it," the colonel answered, almost kindly.

_They will?_ Hakkai thought, stunned. Oh gods. The nightmare might finally be over….

_But what do they want for a price?_

Major Carter frowned. "If you were going to dial Cimmeria… you have one of Kanzeon's talismans? The Tok'ra couldn't get any."

"The Tok'ra _said_ they couldn't," O'Neill said dryly. "Which makes me wonder just how you got this." He flourished the GDO. "Given you and our snake-buddies are on such _good_ speaking terms."

Hakkai was, briefly, glad that Sanzo was unarmed.

_He has the sutra up his sleeve. He's not exactly_ unarmed.

Sanzo almost, _almost_ smirked.

_Oh no._

"We stole it," Sanzo said levelly.

"You _what?_ " Major Carter burst out.

"Carter." O'Neill didn't bother to watch as she subsided. "You stole it," the colonel repeated evenly. "Should I be asking why, or how?"

"How was simple." Sanzo's gaze didn't flicker. "Tok'ra tend to underestimate the locals. Even the local healers. And Hakkai has very fast hands."

And Gojyo didn't so much as twitch to say what might have been left out of that story. Good.

"Which leaves why." O'Neill lifted a salt-and-pepper brow.

"They _left_ us, Colonel." Gojyo's hand swept the air as if he'd slash the memories away. "Hakkai was in Ni's private hell for years, and no one came for Gonou. Three other guys besides me and the doc lived through that ambush, and no one came for us. Two of them died in that lab - but by the time they did, they didn't know who, or _what_ , they were anymore. The third-" He looked away.

"We had to kill him, months later," Sanzo stated. "He was youkai, he was insane, and he was eating people." The priest paused. "If the general really wants to know, we can tell him who we think it was. But he wasn't really… recognizable." Fingers clenched, almost drawing blood before Sanzo recalled his hands weren't armored. "Put him down as killed in action. By the time we got to him… the man died in Ni's dungeon. Let it end there."

_And people think you're soulless as a demon_ , Hakkai thought wistfully, tapping Goku's arm when the teen started fidgeting. At least the younger youkai knew to keep quiet when Sanzo was in scary negotiating mode. _I wish I could show them how wrong they are._ Granted, Sanzo's style of compassion wasn't kind. It wasn't nice. It cut, like surgeon's steel, slicing away what couldn't be saved.

Kanzeon treasured it. He wondered if the SGC would be as wise.

_Gojyo and Sanzo were part of it. They should be good people._

Yet if they were, why were they still allied with the Tok'ra?

_And here we are, outnumbered, separated from most of our supplies, with who knows how many armed people between us and the Stargate. People Gojyo would hesitate to strike against. No wonder Sanzo's worried._

"I'll let the general know," the colonel stated. "But I'm still not hearing an answer."

"Probably because the Tok'ra would never consider lending a GDO to a group of locals," Dr. Jackson observed. "Which is what you let them think you were, isn't it?"

"What else could we be?" Sanzo smirked. "No gear, no dog-tags, no nothing. All that's left that proves who we are is in our heads. And that is _not_ an option."

Teal'c inclined his head, apparently having come to some troubling conclusion. "What is it you believe the Tok'ra would not wish us to know?"

Sanzo straightened, ready for a fight. "They've been on Shangri-La at least three times this past year. That we know about. They come by shuttle, hide it near a 'Gate, and while some of them try to break Kanzeon's lock on the DHD, the rest sneak into town, claiming to be Kanzeon healers with a cure to the 'madness of the youkai'."

"Which, far as we can tell, is really zatarc programming," Gojyo stuck in. "Did I mention Gyokumen Koushu is a real bitch?"

"Such a promise makes it easy to recruit the sane youkai, who want to help their relatives," Hakkai said softly. "And many brave humans who wish to save their neighbors' lives and sanity."

"We can't tell you what happened the other two times, because we only got there after people were counting the bodies," Sanzo said grimly. "This time, we got to the village elders first. They headed off the local hotheads, and let the demon-slayers take the lead. So when the Tok'ra grabbed the youkai zatarcs they were interested in, and _took off_ …."

"Leaving us in the middle of, oh, about thirty insane youkai assassins," Gojyo stuck in.

"But nobody else got hurt!" Goku bounced over to Sanzo, unable to stand it any longer. "The plan worked, and the villagers stayed out of it, and we're all okay!" He clutched Sanzo's hand, gold eyes wide. "We're okay."

Violet narrowed. The priest huffed, tension faintly easing in his shoulders. "Damn it, _duck_ next time!"

"Promise," Goku smiled. "Can we get breakfast now? I'm hungry!"

"In a couple," O'Neill said practically. Eyed Sanzo. "Those are pretty serious charges."

"Contact the Tok'ra, then," Hakkai suggested, with one of his best smiles. "I'm sure we'd all be interested in hearing their version of events."

Oh dear. O'Neill didn't look convinced at _all_.

 


	3. The Idiocy is Contagious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack thinks they're hiding something. Oh, where to even begin....

"They're hiding something," Jack said darkly, watching the Shangri-La foursome - plus white dragon - claim a table away from curious SGC personnel, from which they could still see all the exits.

"They managed to survive offworld for almost two years," Daniel pointed out, trying not to raise an eyebrow at Hakkai's tray, with its bowl of cooked, chopped meat for Hakuryuu, or Goku's, loaded with three of just about everything the cafeteria lunch had to offer. "I'm sure they're hiding lots of things." He hesitated. "But I don't think they're lying about the Tok'ra."

"Carter's working on contacting them," Jack said noncommittally.

Translation, Jack didn't think they were lying about that either. But Jacob Carter and Selmak were reliable, even if some of the rest of the Tok'ra were a little… shifty. There might be an explanation. Maybe.

"So what are they hiding?" Jack cocked a brow at him.

Daniel snorted. "You mean, besides the sake, porn, and local cigarettes in Captain Sha's luggage, the _very_ well-marked maps in Hakkai's, and - oh, yes - the gold coronet in Dr. Genjyo's?"

"Somewhere out there, Sleeping Beauty wants her crown back," Jack said lightly. "Gold _and_ veils. Can you imagine what he looks like wearing that thing?"

"Actually, I can," the archaeologist admitted. "It's kind of terrifying." Almost as terrifying as the amount of duplication in everybody's supplies. Not just ammo. Hakkai might be carrying the _best_ maps, but everyone carried some. Likewise, Sha seemed to be the heavy smoker and drinker, and Goku had the sweet tooth, but Sanzo and even Hakkai had backup vices in their gear… if not of the porn.

_Whatever they're into, they're ready to get their supplies destroyed, dumped down rivers, or lost. And they've been separated under fire, more than once._

"Important guy," Jack echoed his statement of hours ago. " _How_ important?"

"He stands up to you," Daniel pointed out. "And Sha doesn't see anything odd about that."

"Hell, Sha expected it," Jack said thoughtfully.

"Kind of implies that not only is he in charge of them, but he's high enough rank that anyone else he runs into has to at least hear him out," Daniel stated.

"And given Kanzeon's in charge of the planet…." Jack let the sentence die, obviously not happy.

_I don't like it, either. But…._ "Have you ever tried to live in a clan-oriented society, Jack?" Daniel asked seriously. "Unless someone knows you, and can vouch for you - outsiders aren't welcome. They might bring bad luck. They might be witches. They might be a trap set by gods or demons for the unwary. Goku didn't have any family, Hakkai's is dead, and the youkai who's willing to claim Gojyo seems to be trapped by obligation onto Gyokumen Koushu's side. If they wanted to survive, they had to follow the last clan bond any of them had left. Genjyo Sanzo's."

"Joseph," Jack stated. "Not Gojyo."

"Dokugakuji probably isn't interested in _Joseph_ ," Daniel reminded him. "Still. Outside of who they might have obligations to, it's what they're not saying that's really interesting." He started ticking off observations on his fingers. "Nobody's mentioned Sanzo's bindi. He keeps his bangs long enough to cover it, but he's not obsessed with hiding it. Which implies it _is_ a symbol of rank, and it's _not_ something he can hide if someone challenges him on it - but he can let people miss it if they want to."

"Kouryuu," Jack objected.

"Hakkai was careful to use that name with us," Daniel acknowledged. "But Janet says Gojyo called him Sanzo before we showed up. And Goku hasn't called him anything but."

"Was it like that for you?" Jack glanced at him. "New place, new name; figuring nobody might bring you home?"

"I didn't lose Kasuf," Daniel answered, after a moment's pain. "If I had… it would have been a lot harder to come back."

"Huh." Jack filed that for serious mental consideration. "What else?"

Next finger. "They didn't mention that Hakkai taught them Abydonian."

Jack frowned. "And how do you deduce that, Dr. Jackson?"

"Personnel records," Daniel answered. "Captain Sha was only with the SGC a few months, and linguistics isn't his strong point. Dr. Genjyo's a linguist, but he was barely here a week past orientation. He couldn't have picked up Abydonian that fast. And he was on that mission because people on Shangri-La speak Koryo instead." Which left only one obvious culprit.

"Funny they didn't return the favor before now," Jack observed, eyeing them as Sha and Sanzo named off nearby items for the other two, stealing someone's abandoned newspaper to show off more. Repeating the various words appeared to slow Goku's near-inhalation of his tray to just unreasonably fast gobbling.

"Why teach anyone a language you don't think they're ever going to use?" Daniel tried not to wince in sympathy, as Sanzo cautiously sampled various items, and ended up slipping most of them onto Goku's plate. _I guess nothing tastes right to him, either…._ "Now, that's interesting."

"Oh?" Jack didn't bother to hide his interest, as Sha rolled his eyes at whatever Hakkai murmured, but nevertheless headed off with a smile that implied the redhead was going to sweet-talk the cooks out of something.

"Hakkai's been watching Sanzo eat-"

"You mean, not eat," Jack put in. "Couldn't keep a squirrel alive on that much soup."

"-He must think he has an idea… pickles?"

Sweet gherkins, a lemon, a couple spoonfuls of various jellies, a can of tuna, and what looked like one of the health-food loaves kept on hand for some of the crankier scientists.

"I can't watch," Jack whimpered.

"That first night back? I didn't throw up just because you got me drunk," Daniel pointed out. "Janet said he's healthy, but underweight. They've probably been dealing with this for a while."

"What, you don't just think he's a picky eater?"

"Have you seen Goku steal anything off his plate?" Daniel countered.

Jack frowned, admitting the point. "Shove him at Janet again?"

"Think it could wait a day or two?" Daniel suggested. "Maybe we should give them a little more time to get used to not being shot at. And there's one more thing that bothers me."

"Only one?" But Jack gave him a hand-wave of, _go on_.

"Well, two. First, how'd Sanzo get along without his reading glasses? Janet's records say he's far-sighted-"

Having finally snatched a few non-sports sections of the paper from Sha, Sanzo reached into a pocket and took out a pair of antique-looking spectacles.

"And two?" Jack asked, humor coloring his voice.

"Two is… a little more nebulous." Daniel hesitated. "He doesn't feel like the Dr. Genjyo I met two years ago."

"Doesn't feel like him." But Jack's voice was thoughtful, not doubtful.

"The man I met was a linguist," Daniel went on, unsure how to explain. "Young, interested in what might be out there, a lot more practical than most of the scientific recruits we've gotten through here. But I wouldn't exactly have wanted him behind me with a sidearm."

"And this guy can nail a Goa'uld in midair," Jack nodded. "Time. Combat. Can change a guy."

"I know. But…."

"Yeah. But." Jack frowned. "Like to think I would have noticed a guy with command potential. Even if it was hiding behind books." The colonel leaned back in his chair. "Janet's pretty sure they're ours. Then again, she was pretty sure we'd turned into tin men one time, too."

"She wasn't exactly wrong," Daniel reminded him. "So?"

"Not a tin man, or the battery would have run out by now. We've met energy beings who can look like other people-"

"Wouldn't have blood," Daniel pointed out.

"Those spirit-aliens with the Salish, who shapeshift-"

"Wouldn't have human blood," the archaeologist stated, starting to enjoy this.

"Suicide rather than capture aliens with holograms-"

"High-frequency blast when things came through the 'Gate would have blown their cover."

"Kind-of clones made by renegade Reetou-"

"The TER detector alarms Sam put together haven't gone off."

"And Goa'uld playing with human evolution by aging people with nanites," Jack concluded.

Daniel considered that one, eyes going wide. "You really think Dr. Genjyo - might not be Dr. Genjyo?"

"He sets off your weirdness radar. He sets off mine. And his DNA's screwy." Jack lifted a shoulder, let it fall. "We'll keep an eye on them. After all, it's not like they're going anywhere."

* * *

 

_We've got to get out of here._ Sanzo hid his thoughts behind the paper, trying not to snarl at the idiots mother-henning him. Yes, he needed to eat. He just… damn it, not only was the Mountain strictly non-smoking, there wasn't even a beer to be had, much less the amount of sake it would take to loosen the ever-tightening squeeze of : _curiosity_ : and : _wariness_ : from the other people eating.

And he didn't have his gun. What the hell was he supposed to do, when he couldn't even shoot at the growing squabble across the table?

"You said these were comics!" Goku griped.

"They are!" Gojyo shot back, leaning into the teen's space.

"They're not funny!"

"In _English_ they're funny."

"What kind of lousy jokes are they, if you have to read a whole 'nother language to get 'em?"

"Learn something and find out, boneheaded monkey-"

_Thwack! Thwack!_

_"Ow!"_

At least he still had his fan.

"It's good to know some things don't change," Hakkai said cheerfully. "Sanzo? Those people are staring at Hakuryuu."

"They've never seen a dragon before. I'll handle it." Setting his paper down, Sanzo eyed the gawkers and switched to English. "This is Hakuryuu. Look, but don't touch. She bites." _And sometimes breathes fire._ "She is not a pet. More like… search and rescue." As in, search out the enemy, and rescue the four of them from stumbling into traps you couldn't see from the ground. "If something happens to her, take her to Hakkai." Sanzo jabbed a thumb at the healer. "He's a pretty good dragon vet. Any other questions?"

"Looks more like a wyvern than a dragon," one of the administrative types muttered.

"Wyverns are a sub-variety of dragons," a uniform with the pasty face of someone usually stuck behind a computer monitor objected.

"Oh yeah? In what lame game system?"

"Obviously, the idiocy is contagious," Sanzo muttered in Koryo, as the wyvern-versus-dragon argument devolved from there.

"Or endemic," Hakkai chuckled. "So you told them-?"

"Don't touch, she bites, take her to you if anything goes wrong."

"Cheep!" Hakuryuu cocked her head at him, indignant.

"I _know_ they'd deserve it if you bit them," Sanzo said dryly. "They don't."

"Kyuu." She snuggled against Hakkai's neck, mollified.

Which was just as well, because apparently that had broken the ice, and they were swarmed.

"Were you really missing for two years?"

"What's the planet like?"

"How come those two don't speak English?"

Too many questions. Too many emotions.

_God, I want my gun._

People might pester a priest with philosophical questions and their personal problems, but their respect for the robes at least gave him room to breathe. The gun won him more when he needed it; nothing like a warning shot to get the most stubborn crowd to _back off_.

"Gojyo," Hakkai said in an undertone, "I think I'm a little overwhelmed-"

"Are you a Jaffa?"

_…He did not just say that. He_ did not _just say that._

Hakkai was fast, which was good for him and good for the idiot Marine and bad for Sanzo's current plan for stress relief by way of moron-strangling. "Let go," he snarled in Koryo through the white heat of rage. "All I want to do is break his arms. He'll live."

"Sanzo." Hakkai's hold was subtle, gentle, and quite capable of dislocating his shoulder with minimal effort. "Whatever he said, it can't be worth it."

"Bastard called me a Jaffa!"

"He _what?_ " Goku shot out of his chair, teeth bared.

"Did he." There was sudden steel under Hakkai's smile. "Gojyo? I do hope someone misspoke. Didn't they."

"You guys," Gojyo sighed, "are wound _way_ too tight."

_Easy for you to say, you weren't there when that spider-woman - when she-_

He'd never been so glad to see someone disintegrate in his life.

Eyeing the Marine, Gojyo switched back to English. "Corporal… Meyers, is it? Want to tell me why you thought His Crankiness over there might be carrying a larva? He's not, by the way. And making a comment like that on Shangri-La? If it doesn't get you killed, it'll start a bar-fight so nasty, you'll be lucky if they just run you out of town." He shrugged, crossing his arms with a challenging grin. "In the interests of making sure you have it _completely_ clear, because if you go there this is the kind of thing that could get you dead - ask a guy if it's his mother or his sister he fucked last Saturday. You'll live longer."

Silence rippled out, carrying : _shock_ : and no little : _anger_.:

_They like Teal'c_ , Sanzo knew. _Damn it, why do I have to be the diplomat? I suck at it._ He sighed, as Hakkai let go, deliberately recalling English. "Don't use language like that around Goku."

"Kid knows worse," Gojyo pointed out.

"And who can I blame that on?" Not waiting for a reply, Sanzo eyed the corporal. "The Queen you'd be up against on Shangri-La uses Goa'uld to fight. Or zatarcs. Jaffa are her _household slaves_. And no one's born Jaffa. She sends people out to kidnap who she wants, and changes them. Most of the time, she likes pretty little girls to do her makeup and the palace chores… and a lot of pretty _boys_. Most of whom aren't so pretty, after a while; she has a thing for fire, and whips. Am I getting through, or do you need a flowchart?"

The Marine swallowed. "Sorry, sir. I didn't know."

_That's why you're still alive._

"So, if it's not rude, sir - what is that?" The corporal pointed to his forehead. "If it's not a System Lord mark…."

_Koumyou's last practical joke._ "It's called a chakra," Sanzo said levelly, stepping over to Goku's side. "It means that I got stuck as a guardian." And if they thought he meant Goku, that was their problem.

Oh good. The rest of lunch looked portable. Good for his ears, at least; he'd definitely had more than enough-

Hakkai lifted a brow, ever so slightly.

_All right, all right. Blackmailer._ Snatching some napkins, Sanzo folded bread around some various remnants, almost tucking them into his sleeve before recalling that local shirts didn't have that kind of room. Annoying.

But Hakkai had a point, much as he hated it. Keep your cool, keep your strength up - and make a break for it at the first opportunity.

_Back on my own planet and I feel like I'm in prison._ Sanzo smirked bitterly at himself as they retreated from the crowd. _Which is exactly what will happen if anybody here figures out what the sutra can do._

Not that the SGC would call it that. They'd just want to study - _thoroughly_ study - the alien technology. Along with the man who could make it work.

_I've got to get out of here._

Goku would come, no question. Hakkai - if the SGC could get Gonou out, Sanzo was all for it. But if they had to make a break for it, he knew Hakkai would be right there with him.

_He'd never betray me. He'd sooner bite his tongue and die._

If it came down to that - he'd kneel before the Sanbutsushin and beg, damn it. Hakkai had had too many hopes crushed already.

_Which leaves Gojyo. Joseph._

Not a problem with any easy solution.

_Damn it, I knew this was going to be a bad idea._

But the past was past, they were here now, and he'd better find a solution, easy or not. Hakkai hadn't been born youkai, and Goku wasn't exactly youkai - or so said Kanzeon, and he really didn't like to think about that too hard - but they both had enough of the instincts to start getting agitated if their little clan broke into a dispute over long-term goals.

_Don't pretty it up, unless you want people to die_ , Sanzo told himself harshly. _You lead this pack of homicidal maniacs for the same reason Kougaiji leads his clan - all his relatives, and all the clanless stragglers like Dokugakuji who came over to his side by choice. You lead because, human or not, you've made it_ damn _clear that you are the toughest, stubbornest,_ meanest _one of the bunch. If Gojyo challenges that…._

"So how close was it?" O'Neill asked neutrally, as they hit the corridors. "To you having to carry a snake in your gut."

Sanzo held up a thumb and forefinger, about three inches apart.

"No way," Gojyo said in disbelief. "You never let them get that close."

"Before we met," Sanzo stated. "Koumyou got called in to assist in a town dispute." Which was a polite way of referring to a mess that could have come straight out of Romeo and Juliet, minus the mutual suicides and plus a little incest and rape. "While he made nice with the locals, I was out in the streets, listening for any inconvenient little facts they might have left out. I heard someone in trouble…."

* * *

 

Fear, so much : _fear_ ,: dragging him in like a fisherman's net. And he couldn't understand why, until he blundered into the shimmering web.

_Illusion_ , he realized. _I walked right into-_

Yards away, the inn waitress screamed as the jewel touched her navel, and flesh warped. : _Hopelessness_ : swept out from her like a wave, and she fell.

He wanted to run to her, but horror turned his feet to stone. He wanted to flee - but the chi-web tightened around him, as the violet-haired youkai procurer laughed. "My, my. A baby priest. And such a _pretty_ one."

: _Hate. Lust. Sick, delighted anticipation of another's pain._ :

_No._ Hell, _no. You're not getting your rocks off on me, you bitch!_

"Such _angry_ eyes. Shouldn't you be preaching about forgiveness and tranquility, and a soul's duty to the gods? Of course, you'll be serving one god soon enough…." She advanced slowly, one lazy step at a time, letting him see it coming. And why not? Her illusion would turn away all help, and her web held him paralyzed-

He swallowed, and reached inside for a core of stillness. _"Makusanmanda basaradansen…."_

The chant wasn't important, really, according to Koumyou. It was just a guide into trance, to shape : _listening_ : into : _you will hear!_ :

"Oh, _now_ you start… praying…?"

_"On kirikiri. On kirikiri." You will not use me. You will not touch me._

Her stride faltered, steps turning glacial-slow. Cat-slit eyes widened, incandescent with thwarted rage.

_"Untara takanman…." No creature has the right to claim me!_

He could hear her outraged snarls, the whimper of the damaged waitress. He could feel the youkai's hot breath, as she strained to get even a hair's breadth closer. None of it mattered.

_No one forces me where I don't want to go. No one makes me what I don't want to be! I live as I choose. Then. Now. Forever!_

_"Makai tenjyo!"_ Koumyou's voice rang out.

The sutra's power struck, and only Koumyou's fierce pride in him remained.

* * *

 

"I held her off," Sanzo stated, "Koumyou destroyed her, and we got the waitress to a healer. It took three rounds of surgery, and last I heard she was going to need to see a healer every month for a year until her immune system got enough of a kick in the pants to take over all the way. And Shangri-La's year has a few more months to it."

: _Interest_ ,: from the colonel and archaeologist. _:Worry. Hope-_ :

Damn. He hadn't meant to raise false hopes. "She was lucky," Sanzo went on, as if he'd noticed nothing. "If she'd been implanted with a larva, if we hadn't been able to get her to a healer within hours… wouldn't be anything anyone could do. Except take her to one of Kanzeon's temples and hope she chose to live with the goddess." He glanced at the colonel. "They call her the Merciful Goddess, but most people would rather suicide than live with the shame of having… become Jaffa."

"So how's Kanzeon find enough people to raise her snake babies?" O'Neill said dryly.

"She keeps the kiddies in a lotus pool, like koi," Sanzo shot back. _Oh hell no, not again…._ "Or so the legends say," he bluffed.

Damn. Damn, damn, _damn_ they'd better not have noticed. Sometimes he just… knew things. And not the stuffed-in-your-head-for-later kinds of things Koumyou had used to put together a warp-speed apprenticeship. Things _nobody_ on Shangri-La ought to know. And it hadn't started with the chakra.

_A river of stillness, catching fire…._

It was the _rage_ that still shook him, far more than the close shave ever had. That blinding moment when he had denied the youkai's will to act, utterly, because _no mortal had the right-_

_Yeah. And exactly what did my cracked brain think I was?_

"Killed," Dr. Jackson said, troubled. "Not destroyed."

Sanzo snorted. " _Killed_ implies there was something left to bury."

"Priests with heavy firepower." O'Neill almost grinned. "If there weren't a Goa'uld mixed up in it, might be my kind of religion." He held up a hand to stop them at an intersection. "Granted, I think the nurses were looking forward to the cheesy lines if Janet needed another blood sample from Captain Sha-"

"Cheesy?" Gojyo sputtered.

"But we tend to reserve the infirmary for sick people. And sometimes, passed out cold people." He waved down another hall. "We moved your stuff in down this way."

"This way" was a suite. A small suite, but nicer than the cramped inn rooms Sanzo usually reserved when they were on the road. With reason. Assassins _looked_ for people in high-class rooms. Granted they'd all so far managed to wake up before the knife went home every time; or in Goku's case, kick the unfortunate assassin through a door while still snoring away. Didn't mean Sanzo liked having a broken night's sleep.

This was nice. Too nice. Separate beds for everybody. Chairs and table piled with three-ring binders and a microwave, a bathroom with shower, pretty carpet with their packs and what looked like their bagged clothes on it, and a parrot's perch from who-knew-where that Hakuryuu promptly claimed. All framed by neutral gray and blue paint that managed to be austere and haughty at the same time.

And, Sanzo didn't fail to notice, only one door out to the hall.

_Grrr… breathe. Just breathe. If we have to, we_ make _a door._

"We're working on getting the Tok'ra to talk to us," O'Neill added, heading back out the door as they looked at each other. "When they do, we'll let you know."

Dr. Jackson glanced at them like he'd like to ask just one more question… then shrugged. "Some of the administrative staff helped me put together a 'while you were out' briefing," he said, waving toward the binders. "Happy reading."

_Thump._

Hakkai tested the knob. "Not locked," he said warily.

"Doesn't have to be." Closing his eyes, Sanzo felt for : _watchfulness touched with boredom,_ : and gestured in three different directions.

"Ah." The healer wore a slight smile. "They don't know us very well, do they?"

"Or, maybe they just think they can _trust_ us, because we're not the bad guys," Gojyo said pointedly. "Right, monkey?"

Goku was quiet. _Too_ quiet. As he had been, Sanzo reflected, practically from the time they'd left the infirmary. "What's wrong?" the priest growled.

"…They don't trust us." Goku took a last sniff, obviously teasing out fine hints in the SGC personnel's remaining scent that Hakkai and Gojyo would miss. "I don't think they want to fight us, but - I dunno. They're human, but… it's kind of like when Kougaiji needs us for something, so he calls a truce?" Gold eyes stared up at him, puzzled. "So why aren't they just asking, instead of acting like everything's fine?"

"They don't have your nose," Sanzo said dryly, snatching his bagged robes to sit down on the bed he wanted. _Hell with this bare-hands idiocy. The general's probably going to want to see us after he gets their reports, and I've got enough of a headache without the handshakes we're going to be tortured with later. I want my kote, and I want them now-_

: _Relief_ : was all the warning Sanzo got, before he had a stressed-out monkey wrapped around him in a fiery hug. Brown hair nudged his, teeth closing gently on the corner of his jaw.

: _Mine. Belonging._ :

Sanzo sighed, and ruffled brown hair, gripping briefly on the nape of the teen's neck. : _Mine. Responsible for. Staying._ : "Sucks, having to pass for human?"

"Duh." Goku breathed in his scent, relaxing. "This place is huge! There's gotta be thousands of people in here. And there's nothing green. No wind, no birds, no running water… just little traces of outside somebody stepped in. How deep _are_ we?"

"Pretty far down," Gojyo acknowledged, for once serious. "It's the middle of a mountain. You guys going to be okay?"

"I guess…." Looking down, dejected, Goku started to let go. "It's just, there's no place to get _away_ here, and you know how much Sanzo hates being crowded-"

"Yeah. I do." Sanzo latched an arm around his neck. "Don't get used to it."

Brightening at the open invitation, Goku leaned back in, chin resting on Sanzo's shoulder as he sighed happily.

_One down_ , Sanzo knew, relieved. This touch, he could stand. It wasn't some stranger's unpredictable flux of emotions whip-sawing his soul; it was Goku, a bright fire of : _happy_ : and : _still worried,_ : and safe as leaning next to a familiar hot stove.

_You're okay, kid. I'm here, and you're here, and the clan's going to be fine._ He had to smile wryly at himself. _Probably mostly because of you. I'm a lousy excuse for a human being and everybody knows it. But you…._

_You look at me, and you see the guy you want to follow. Through hell and back._

_Man, what a challenge. Not my nature to back down from a challenge, is it? And you know it. Manipulative little…._

Giggling quietly, Goku backed away from his neck. "You need your shirt, Sanzo. How'm I supposed to know it's you if it doesn't taste like leather?"

"Brat." _Thwack._

"Ah, but he has a point." Sitting on the other side of the bed, Hakkai leaned back against Sanzo, shoulders brushing shoulders with a warmth of : _relief_ : and : _patience_.: "Some scents are inextricably linked to our sense of you, Sanzo. Leather, cordite, citrus… power." A moment's pause. "I know you can't stand to be caged. Try to bear it, just a little longer. Break your wings against the bars, and you'll miss the chance to fly."

Gojyo rolled his eyes, grabbing a chair and pulling it over to them. "We're not in prison, Hakkai."

"No? Well. It may be that Captain Joseph Sha is not," the healer acknowledged. "But tell me. Could Sha Gojyo ask the SGC to open the Stargate back to Shangri-La?" Under the smile, the tone was shadowed. "Could Genjyo Sanzo?"

"I… oh, shit." Turning his chair around backwards, Gojyo draped himself over it. "I really screwed up this time, huh?"

"Want me to answer that, or just glare?" Sanzo bit his lip, and forced himself calmer. "You wanted to go home. I could have said no."

"'Cause no one pushes you where you don't want to be pushed." The redhead snorted, and drummed his fingers on the chair back.

"Uh-oh," Goku muttered. "He's _thinking_."

"I do that sometimes, monkey." Fingers closed on polished wood. "Used to do a lot more, I guess. You don't make rank just jumping into things. But that was before…."

"I know," Hakkai acknowledged. "I used to be so very deliberate. Lesson plans, grades, class times just so. And then… it was quite a shock, realizing how _immediate_ the world had become. So much to hear, see, smell, feel…." A shift in the mattress; Sanzo glanced over his shoulder enough to see Hakkai regarding his hands.

"I think I've found most of my focus again," the healer went on, grasping his knees. "I could teach. But - it wouldn't be like before. I couldn't be the calm, responsible teacher everyone wishes for, who smiles at the class with only a blackboard and books. I'd be the insane lunatic everyone wants to disavow hiring, who drags in poisonous plants and hauls the class out in the storm to teach them about lightning."

"Eccentric," Sanzo said confidently. "You're only insane if you don't have cash."

"…I'm sure you were _trying_ to be comforting, Sanzo." Green glanced ruefully at crimson. "True-born youkai are used to the senses. We're… like old parchment, scraped clean for a new poem. Pens catch. Ink doesn't flow smoothly."

"Long story short, you think Air Force rules and regs aren't going to bend enough," Gojyo said dryly.

"Can you bend enough for them?" Sanzo shot back, turning to catch Gojyo's gaze with his own. _Hit him hard, hit him fast; let him blow up at_ you, _not the rest of the SGC. We can't do anything from the damn brig._

_…Well, we can, but the general would probably try to take the property damage out of our hides._

"Think about it," Sanzo went on. "Teal'c's been on SG-1 for years, right? But you told me he still couldn't get off base unless SG-1 was there with him, and he kept that symbol covered. You ready to do that? Dye your hair, wear contacts, maybe only go into town when somebody _human_ is along to vouch for you?"

"Sanzo," Hakkai murmured.

"I'm _not_ going to lie about this," Sanzo said vehemently. "I'm not going to say, oh, poor baby, everything's going to be fine. _You are han'you._ You can't walk away from that. You can't ignore it. You can't fight it, anymore than Goku can if someone takes out his limiter and we all have to scramble for cover. The chi _burns_ in you, and _you have to use it_." He sucked in a sharp breath. "Maybe you can shove that back into an Air Force uniform. _Maybe_. You've got stubborn enough to try; I know _that_. But is that enough?"

"Like you've got room to talk, priest," Gojyo said through clenched teeth.

"Exactly." Sanzo didn't flinch. "Piece of advice on last requests: don't answer them."

"Wait a minute," Goku broke in, alarmed. "Are you sayin' that if you stayed here - they wouldn't let you be Sanzo anymore?"

"They hauled Dr. Jackson back from Abydos when he didn't want to come," Sanzo noted. "And he was the guy who opened the Stargate. I'm sure as hell not going to get any special favors."

"But you _gotta_ be Sanzo! Who's gonna be if you're not?" Gold eyes were wide, disbelieving and worried at once. "The Sanbutsushin said I've gotta stay with Sanzo! If you're not Sanzo - I don't wanna go with anyone else!"

"You're from offworld, and they probably think you're a minor," Sanzo stated. "You can tell them what the Sanbutsushin said until you're blue in the face. I doubt they'll care." He eyed the kid, nudging that : _worry_ : with : _reassurance_.: "Damn it, Goku, have I ever left anything half-done? I got you out of that cave. I'm not enough of an idiot to think that was the end of it."

"You're going back," Gojyo realized.

"Leaving aside a certain bitch youkai Goa'uld Queen whose ass I plan to kick… Gojyo. Physical exams. People who don't know youkai. Right now I've got a full-length, extra gore, soul-chilling screams, no one gets out alive, double feature in my head of some well-meaning lab-coated idiot _distracting Goku to take the diadem off_."

"Hey!" Goku stiffened, indignant. "I wouldn't-"

Sanzo waved one of the mini cherry turnovers he'd snatched off the dessert tray on the way out. His first thought on seeing them had been _Lirin-bait_ \- and Hakkai wasn't the only one with fast hands. "Want one?"

"Ooo!"

"…Okay," Gojyo admitted, head in hands as he almost laughed. "You've got a point."

"Mmph?" Goku blinked, mouth full of cherry goodness.

"I've got to go back," Sanzo said matter-of-factly. "Goku has to go back. Hakkai?"

"I think I would like to visit here," the healer said thoughtfully. "In the future. If we have assurances of free passage. And I'd certainly welcome them, if they choose to visit Shangri-La. But stay… no, I don't think I would like to stay." A slight shrug. "For Kanan… I hated youkai for a very long time. But it's what I am. To live among people who have no idea what that is, or why I might be angry at a scent they find pleasing, or happy to be drawing blood - no. I don't think I can."

Sanzo nodded. Turned a serious look on Gojyo. "Everyone has to follow their own path, and damned if I don't understand sworn oaths. If you have to stay, tell us what we can do to help. If you want to go - think about how we can convince the SGC to let you. _If_ we can."

"So you'd storm the general's office for me?" Gojyo said lightly. And paused, at the glint in violet eyes. "Right. Stupid question."

"They do say blowing up your first fortress is always the hardest," Hakkai said cheerfully. "Just remember what happened the last time we had to take out underground retaining walls."

"You two," Gojyo said admiringly, "are _insane_."

"Nah," Goku grinned, licking his lips to get the last bits of cherry and frosting. "We just don't wanna break in a new kappa. Right?"

"Don't decide right now," Sanzo advised. "Just think about it. Be _sure_." He rested a hand on brown hair, safely above the diadem. "I did what I had to, _became_ what I had to, to stay alive and get you out. _My_ choice. I'm not going to whine about it. But I'm sure as hell not going to stand in the way of you finally getting a choice." He shook his head slowly. "Think about who you were. Who you are. Who you _want_ to be. Joseph, Gojyo… when you know which one fits, tell us." Deliberately, he looked away.

"My," Hakkai said lightly, "what a solemn bunch we are." Standing, he picked one of the folders off the table. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm rather curious to know what they thought you might have missed."

"Yeah," the han'you said thoughtfully, picking up another. "So am I…."

* * *

 

Seated at the conference room table with the rest of SG-1, General George Hammond watched Major Carter greet her father, and smiled. At least Jacob Carter was still welcome here, even if the rest of the Tok'ra were uneasy allies at best.

_I'm not the only one who's noticed their intel always improves dramatically after we bring them a new volunteer for a host_ , Hammond thought. _For a while._

And then there would be another disaster, which could have been prevented if they'd had another spy on the ground, so the High Council would say, and couldn't their _allies_ adhere better to the _alliance…?_

_Focus on the current problem_ , Hammond told himself firmly as the two Carters broke off their hug and sat down, ready for business. "Jacob. Dr. Fraiser tells me the symbiote support tank has been installed in the infirmary. We appreciate this, but I have to say I'm a bit surprised. We've been asking for a while, and the High Council's always turned us down before."

"Let's just say, I managed to convince Garshaw this time was probably a lot more serious," Jacob said frankly. "Sam passing along word from Colonel O'Neill that, and I quote, _we found something you lost_ , ought to fill any sane person with dread. Combine that with a request for any updated information on System Lord Kanzeon Bosatsu and Shangri-La…." He frowned. "We've lost a few undercover agents on Shangri-La before. I just don't see how any of them could have gotten here."

Jack tapped the GDO in front of him. "Look familiar?"

"That was assigned to Menai's group," Jacob said, surprised. "They just sent us a signal that their mission was accomplished, and they're coming back… they didn't mention losing anyone."

"Don't think they did," Jack stated. "What mission?" In a tone that stated, _and if you say classified, I am not going to be Mr. Nice Colonel anymore today._

"There are certain planets where the System Lords are known to use zatarc programming on a regular basis," Jacob said after a minute. "We're still trying to figure out how to break it, or defend against it. For that, we need zatarcs to test."

"Translation, you were busy kidnapping people," Jack said, almost lightly.

"Colonel," Hammond warned.

"He's right," Jacob admitted, unflinching. "I'm not going to whitewash it. We take people who are _going_ to suicide after their mission anyway, stop them, and run our tests. We think we're getting somewhere. And yes, a lot of them die. This is a war, and if we didn't take them, they'd probably kill a lot of other people carrying out their programming. I don't like it. But when I think about Anise having my daughter under her machine to get part of her brain fried, maybe for real this time… the Goa'uld know you're out there, Jack. All it would take is for them to keep you unaccounted for just a few minutes." He glanced at Hammond. "George, where did you find that?"

"We didn't, Jacob," Hammond said bluntly. "It came through the 'Gate. From Shangri-La." He paused. "Or I should say, it was _brought_ through."

For a moment Jacob stared at him, puzzled… then his old friend's face paled. "You have some of Kanzeon's Goa'uld? Here?"

"Oh, it's way worse than that," Jack said dryly.

_"Worse?"_

"For you and the High Council, Jacob… yes. It is." Hammond eyed the former general darkly. "Do you know exactly how this Menai captures his zatarcs?"

Another hesitation; something in Hammond's gut twisted. "He makes use of local resources," Jacob stated.

"Civilian resources?" Jack asked. " _Unarmed_ civilians, up against zatarcs? Given Goa'uld usually don't let their people get weapons training."

"The locals know these people are dangerous," Jacob said levelly. "They cooperate."

"Because Menai promised them a cure," Daniel said quietly.

"It's what we hope for, eventually," Jacob shrugged. "Who have you been talking to, anyway?"

"Yet such a cure does not, as yet, exist," Teal'c noted. "Menai is engaging in deception."

"I'm sure the former First Prime of Apophis knows war is deception," Jacob shot back. "And they're _not_ unarmed. Heck, this time a bunch of so-called _holy demon slayers_ showed up before Menai could even get any volunteers!"

"Holy?" Daniel asked, with apparent innocence. "They were connected with a temple?"

"A priest of Kanzeon and his attendants," Jacob said warily. "But I get the feeling you knew that already. Who brought the GDO, George? Because if Kanzeon can hack it, we're going to have to redesign them all again-"

"Is one of your agents on Shangri-La a Tok'ra by the name of Gonou?" Hammond asked, trying not to feel bitter disappointment.

"Was, yes," Jacob said warily. "He disappeared about six Earth years ago - about five, as Shangri-La goes. After one of the people crucial to his cover vanished."

"Cho Kanan?" Daniel stated. "One of Kanzeon's Favored?"

For a moment, Jacob stared at him. "How did you- George?"

"Jacob." Hammond shut away the feeling of being betrayed, and… old. "The GDO wasn't hacked. It was brought through the 'Gate by a member of the SGC."

"But there aren't any…." Jacob froze. Looked over SG-1, reading the anger in their poses. "Sammie?"

"Two of them made it, Dad," Major Carter said quietly, heartbreak plain on her face. "All this way. All this time. Even after we _left_ them."

"Only your guy Menai, thinking they were just locals, took off and left the _priest_ and his _demon slayers_ and a _teenage kid_ in the middle of a bunch of zatarcs," Jack said darkly. " _And_ Goa'uld. We've got the dead snakes down in autopsy. Want to see?"

"We also have an apparently catatonic Tok'ra in one of our guests," Daniel said levelly. "Cho Hakkai. Kanan's brother."

"Seems Gonou jumped him, killed bunches of people, then conveniently went insane and left Hakkai to take the fallout," Jack said sourly. "He'd _really_ like Gonou out. If, you know, it wouldn't be too big a thing to ask of our _allies_."

"Unpleasant as each of these facts are individually," Hammond stated before Jacob could respond, "none of them are what have me currently sketching out a draft to the President of why the Earth-Tok'ra alliance should, possibly, come to an abrupt and _immediate_ end." He leaned back, gauging Jacob with a skeptical eye. "Would you like to know what is?"

"…I get the feeling you're about to tell me."

_Good._ "According to our survivors' reports, the unusually skilled and determined Goa'uld forces defending the target lab were, in fact, Kanzeon's. However, the _ambushing_ force, which ended up capturing all but one of our surviving people, belonged to Gyokumen Koushu. The _second_ Goa'uld Queen on the planet. A Queen you never mentioned, who is apparently the true source of the zatarcs you've… acquired."

"That's impossible," Jacob said flatly.

"Why?"

Only Dr. Jackson, Hammond thought, could have pulled off that air of innocence with such a crucial question.

Visibly wrestling with himself, or perhaps with Selmak, Jacob sighed. "George. Given the Replicator situation, Garshaw agrees with me that some of the secrets we've kept for the Asgard ought to be declassified. But if we tell you, you won't have plausible deniability with Thor anymore."

Teal'c arched a brow. "What has the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet to do with the Goa'uld Kanzeon Bosatsu?"

"They've got a bargain," Jacob said flatly.

_Oh. Damn._ Listening, Hammond tried not to show how desperately he wanted an aspirin. _Some days, it just doesn't pay to come to briefings._

"We don't know all the details," the Tok'ra ambassador went on. "The Asgard don't like to talk about it. But for the past fifteen centuries, she's had access to certain Asgard technology. Specifically, that used for genetic manipulation."

Major Carter sat up straight. "She created the youkai?"

"Among other things," Jacob nodded. "Shock troops, better hosts, because it was fun- who knows why. Other System Lords steer clear of her. Partly because Kanzeon keeps to herself, and she's polite when she does have to meet them. But mostly, because the Asgard have made it very clear that if anything happens to Kanzeon's worlds, they'll take it as an _immediate_ treaty violation."

"Suddenly and violently and all over the place?" Jack put in.

"You're getting the idea," Jacob agreed. "Put that together with the fact that Kanzeon's deciphered enough of the Ancient library she has to put a lock on her 'Gates - not even Nirrti's been able to mess with her."

"She has one of the Ancients' libraries?" Daniel said reverently.

"Part of one, we think," Jacob admitted. "Appears to be related to terraforming and biological manipulation. The _Tenchi Kaigen_ scriptures, locals call them - the five scrolls 'used to create Heaven and Earth'." He frowned. "One of the five scroll guardians was _supposed_ to be arriving at that lab at the time of the raid. I don't know what went wrong."

"Besides everything?" Jack muttered.

"Colonel," Hammond said mildly. Shouting would only make the headache worse. "Jacob. Let me see if I correctly understand the situation. The Asgard, allies of both the Tok'ra and Earth, appear to have come to an arrangement with Kanzeon. One they value at least as highly as their dealings with us. Possibly more; they removed the Ancient database from Colonel O'Neill's mind, they certainly didn't provide us with even a partial copy. And the Tok'ra-" he couldn't quite suppress the growl "-meant for my people to act as _decoys_ while you stole technological data the Asgard prefer left with its current holder?"

"She's a Goa'uld, George," Jacob snorted. "It's not like the Asgard have ever complained any of the other times." He paused, setting a holographic projector on the table. "Except for that one mess, nine hundred years ago… we've had to keep our distance during surveillance since then, so this image is a little old. Still accurate, though."

Diaphanous silks draped a long-legged brunette seated casually on a simple throne. Golden anklets showed off perfect bare feet, a sun-disk mirror rested atop the swell of her breasts, and long, glossy brown ringlets were pulled back to display a familiar crimson chakra on her forehead. And behind her throne, to the left and right- Hammond kept his expression neutral.

"This is from about nine centuries ago, but Kanzeon tends to clone bodies her Heavenly Army chooses for hosts," Jacob went on. He waved toward the gray-haired Goa'uld in far more sober jewelry and robes on her left. "Jiroshin. Her chief aide. Very fussy, stickler for protocol; he'd probably faint dead away if you pointed a zat at him. But he keeps Kanzeon's palace running smoothly, and he's got a hell of a nose for spies, worse luck for us." He reached for the projector-

"Who's the blond?" Jack casually nodded toward the slim, lavender-robed figure on Kanzeon's right.

"Konzen Douji?" Jacob rested his hand on the table, surprised. "He's dead."

"Golden Cicada Child," Daniel mused. "I don't remember any myths with that name."

"No reason you would," Jacob said frankly, relaxing at the archaeologist's usual interest in obscure bits of Goa'uld history. "He was just an administrator, even if he was Kanzeon's 'favorite nephew'." He rolled his eyes. "They're almost all her spawn, but she uses words like that, don't ask me why… he was a clerk, really. Guess that just goes to show, you never can tell."

"Tell what?" Major Carter wondered.

"Kanzeon's sarcophagus is sealed," Jacob stated. "It's part of her arrangement with the Asgard. If she ever breaks that seal, the whole deal is off. He _knew_ that." The Tok'ra shook his head. "And he _still_ got between his pet and a lethal shot. I didn't think any of Kanzeon's offspring were that stupid."

"Giving up your life for something you decided to protect," Daniel said, half to himself. "I suppose you don't find that kind of… stupidity, in Goa'uld." Passing Jack a note, he looked at Hammond. "I'm sorry, General, but I just thought of something I need to translate for Janet. In a medical capacity. It could be critical."

Flicking a glance over the note, Jack raised a brow at the general, and nodded.

"Go," Hammond allowed. "What else can you tell us about the planet, Jacob?"

"Well…."

Several minutes of tedious details later, Hammond finally got a look at the note that had made the rounds of SG-1.

_Don't mention Sanzo._

Hammond tried not to eye the hologram too obviously. Sleeveless lavender tunic and trousers instead of white robes. Silver twists of armlets gripping the tops of ornamental silken kote, instead of black leather armor. Long blond hair, mostly caught back in a simple ponytail, with enough bangs falling free to half-conceal the crimson chakra.

_Nine centuries. Jacob says he died - and Janet has proof our man is not a Goa'uld._

Still. With a System Lord involved… Hammond didn't believe in coincidence. Especially when they knew the man's DNA had been-

Eyeing that eerily familiar face, Hammond picked up the phone and dialed. "Dr. Fraiser?"

_"Sir? Daniel was just by, asking for the oddest-"_

"I'm sure he had a good reason. Do you have enough of our guests' samples to run a more conventional DNA analysis? So we're absolutely certain of what we report."

_"Right away, sir."_

"Don't trust the cellular reader?" Jacob asked dryly, as Hammond hung up.

"The more samples we cross-check, the better we understand the technology," Major Carter jumped in.

"I'd give you something better if we could," Jacob said regretfully.

"We're Earth, Jacob," Hammond said steadily. "We'll make do." Not that he expected an Earth-based analysis to get them any farther than Janet already had. Then again - the Asgard had never thought of chemically-propelled projectiles, either.

_Dr. Jackson may have good reason to feel uneasy,_ Hammond thought. He could see the three faces in his mind; a missing linguist's bland SGC ID, a long-dead Goa'uld, and a fiercely alive intruder turned diplomatic guest.

All three were close. But the last two _matched_. Down to the startling violet eyes.

_Why?_

And, possibly more worrisome - who was Gyokumen Koushu to the Tok'ra?

* * *

 

Openly puzzled, Hakkai peered at slick pages, and turned the bound magazine sideways. It didn't help. The image remained as exotic and incomprehensible as before: an endless moment of a spray of water, a multicolored ball, and a tanned blonde wearing too many bits of cloth to be comfortable in the river she was poised to slip into and far too few to be proper anywhere else. Even Kanzeon wore more, though not as - ah - _opaque_ ….

"Oh, for the love of- it's the swimsuit issue, Hakkai." Gojyo waved a hand at Sanzo. "Explain it to him, will you?"

The priest calmly sipped a cup of juice, modestly spiked with Gojyo's flask. "That would require that I understand it in the first place."

Hakkai smiled worriedly, even as the kappa sputtered. Even spiked, the sugar in the juice would only go so far. What Sanzo needed was a beer, or three, or preferably an entire bottle of spirits. The stronger a monk's abilities with _nin_ \- what bits of Gonou's memories tentatively identified as projected psychic energy - the higher their alcohol tolerance. Most of those skilled in "holy magic" got by with a daily glass of spirits. Sanzo could, and _had_ , drunk an entire bar of full-blooded youkai under the table.

_A fortress whose military doesn't drink. Officially. There is something very_ wrong _with this place._

The SGC didn't drink, and they didn't smoke - at least, not in any of the levels their party currently had access to. Which meant he and Goku were stuck with a han'you and a priest still cranky from energy-manipulation headaches, with no treatment beyond little tabs Dr. Fraiser called _aspirin_.

Hakkai had tasted a little of the bitter powder himself, tracing its effect on his own chi. While it might be a nice painkiller, and quite good at thinning blood, it had _no_ effects on the nerves even close to _mononoke-ha_.

_We are so, so doomed._

And neither Gojyo nor Sanzo seemed inclined to ask their hosts to bend their rules. _Or_ tell him why, beyond Sanzo's not-very-informative mutter of _"they wouldn't believe I'm not an alcoholic"_.

_I suppose we can let it rest, for now,_ Hakkai reflected. _Sanzo didn't use the sutra for very long, and I think he's only been_ listening _since we got here. If we can keep enough sugar in him…he'll be irritable, yes, but he won't be in actual danger._

That would be the tricky part. Between the man's picky stomach and his tendency to just curl into a ball of sarcastic misery when it rained too long…. Sanzo tried, Hakkai had seen the man fight himself too hard not to know that. But stress - and for Sanzo, "you can't shoot the idiots" _definitely_ counted as stress - always, _always_ made Sanzo stop eating.

_I'll just have to nag him,_ Hakkai decided. _Quietly. Like always._

"-I don't care if you do keep a friggin' vow of chastity!" Gojyo was grumbling, hands flung up to implore the ceiling. "Just because you're on a diet, doesn't mean you can't explain the menu!"

Sanzo sipped. Set his cup down. Eyed Gojyo. "I only love them for their minds."

The kappa stopped mid-rant. Stared, and slapped himself in the forehead. "You've been _waiting_ to use that one, right?"

Sanzo smirked.

"I don't get it," Goku complained, peering at the picture. "Are they having some kind of ceremony in the river? Like a sacrifice to the water spirits?"

"Say what?" Gojyo exclaimed.

"Well, why else would anyone be wearing a top to go swimming? Even one like _that_."

"Listen, monkey-"

Sanzo straightened.

"Someone we know?" Hakkai murmured, just loud enough that their sole human could hear it.

"Jackson," Sanzo murmured back. And no one human, possibly not even Sanzo, could have heard that. A useful trick their priest had mastered; it'd helped prevent all kinds of trouble when they were surrounded by potentially hostile human mobs.

Glancing at them all, Sanzo spread an open hand, and shrugged slightly.

_True, Dr. Jackson's intelligent enough not to believe we'd drop our guard,_ Hakkai reflected. Caught Gojyo's gaze, and flicked a brow slightly up, as Goku grinned. _So, let him see what he expects to see._

Which meant, of course, that the archaeologist opened the door onto four innocent grins - one draconic - and a raised blond brow.

"Oh no," Dr. Jackson muttered dryly. " _This_ doesn't look familiar." The flash of humor faded as he closed the door and crossed to the table. "Janet helped me find this," he said matter-of-factly, setting a container of flesh-colored powder - some kind of makeup? - on the table. "You're going to need it, if we don't want the Tok'ra to realize we have one of the Tenchi Kaigen scriptures here."

_Erk_ , Hakkai thought.

"Um… and before anybody panics, I know what Jack looks like when he's about to take someone apart… we _like_ the Asgard. They're good people. Thor's really helped us out. If he didn't stick his neck out for the SGC, Earth wouldn't be under the Protected Planets Treaty and we wouldn't have a Stargate anymore. So if Thor wants Kanzeon Bosatsu's people taking care of an Ancient library, we're not going to argue with him." Dr. Jackson took a breath. "And we're not going to let the Tok'ra argue with him, either. So if you don't want to wear the concealer, you can go ahead and give Jacob a heart attack. But since he's our best shot at getting Gonou out…." He spread empty hands.

"He's not the only guy about to keel over," Gojyo managed. "How the hell-?"

"Duh." Goku rolled his eyes. "They saw Sanzo wearing the sutra."

"But there are no legends here of the scriptures that founded Heaven and Earth," Hakkai observed. "You'll have to forgive us, Dr. Jackson. We're not accustomed to dealing with outsiders as quick as Ni, or Prince Kougaiji." _Or Sanzo._

Violet eyes were weighing blue; cold, wary, and silent.

"I think the Tok'ra set up our raid to take Koumyou," Dr. Jackson said quietly. "They've been after Kanzeon and whatever advanced technology she has for centuries, but we won't let them have you. Jacob's lying to us about Gyokumen Koushu, and _we don't know why_."

"And if you did find out why?" Sanzo said levelly.

The archaeologist licked his lips. "Are you serving Kanzeon by choice?"

Hakkai held himself ready with Gojyo, as Goku fidgeted and Sanzo went very still-

"Sit down."

Table and chairs were dragged over to the bed where Sanzo sat. Cups were brought out; tea poured, courtesy of Gojyo, who'd so far kept Goku from any disastrous experiments with the microwave.

"After the Centipede Clan's palace burned, we went to Chang'an," Sanzo said levelly. "Hakkai was still under arrest, Captain Sha didn't legally exist, and Goku… I didn't know _what_ the hell to do with Goku."

"Keep me," Goku shrugged, as Hakuryuu finally relaxed and settled onto Hakkai's shoulder. "Sheesh."

"I'd only known youkai for a few months," Sanzo defended himself. "It took me a while to figure out you and anyone sane was _not_ going to work."

"It's very hard to keep a youkai child somewhere he doesn't want to be," Hakkai informed the curious archaeologist. "Usually, they don't pick human foster parents… but even the temple finally gave in. Once the situation was explained."

"Anyway," Sanzo went on, determined, "I walked everyone into the Temple of the Setting Sun, the way Koumyou would have. Played the part long enough to get into audience with the Sanbutsushin… and then I told them everything." He looked at the archaeologist. "I was just - done. I couldn't go any further. Sha and Goku needed someone to get them set with new lives, Hakkai needed _serious_ legal help, and I… I couldn't _believe_ Koumyou had picked me for his successor. I wasn't a monk. I didn't believe. Hell, I wasn't even from the right _planet_. And I told them that. Loudly. In detail."

"Some of it profane, I take it," Hakkai murmured.

"They did blink." Sanzo almost smirked at the memory. "And after they picked their jaws up, they told me the Merciful Goddess knew damn well who and what I was; Koumyou had called her right after he fished what was left of me out of the river. Koumyou had cleared taking me on with her first, she approved - and if I wanted Cho Hakkai not to go down in flames due to some surviving Centipede Clan allies twisting the facts around the alleged murder of over a thousand people, including one of Kanzeon's Favored, then Genjyo Sanzo had better get his butt back out there and do his damn job."

"They really said it like that?" Gojyo wondered. "All that holiness and glowy robes and all…."

"A little more formally," Sanzo admitted. "I walked out and almost tripped over Goku, who took one look at me and got me to the kitchens. Sometimes, monkey, you've got your priorities straight… anyway. Spent the next week or two digging into everything on Shangri-La's legal system Koumyou hadn't taught me. Sha says you ended up doing something like that before?"

"A couple times," Dr. Jackson admitted. "I had to defend Teal'c once, on a planet he'd raided as Apophis' warrior. Then there was the time I had to argue for Skaara's right to his own body on Tollana. That was not fun. Even if we did win."

"So you can guess what it was like," Sanzo nodded. "I terrorized the librarians, tracked down witnesses, gathered evidence; Sha and Goku dragged me out from under scrolls in the morning and shoveled me back into bed way after dark. That, on top of the temple politics - _nobody_ was happy to see a new Sanzo - hauling in a few witnesses by their ears - Hyakugan Maoh was _gone_ , which meant power struggles in the underworld, which meant swords and bullets started flying - the occasional idiot assassins-"

"What?" Dr. Jackson burst out.

"Mad monks or upset mob bosses," Gojyo put in. "Take your pick. They both tried for him."

The archaeologist stared at them. "They tried to assassinate one of Kanzeon's handpicked guardians?"

Goku eyed him, trying not to be obvious about sniffing the air. "Are you kidding? Bad guys try to kill priests all the time. Even Sanzos."

"Koumyou had a lot of friends, and a lot more enemies," Sanzo said frankly. "The friends didn't think I deserved the rank - and a Sanzo is a Sanzo until he dies. The enemies knew exactly how much trouble they'd had from Koumyou, and figured they'd better pick me off while I was still new." Now he did smirk. "The monk-plasterers in the Temple of the Setting Sun got _really good_ at patching bullet holes."

"But - one of a _System Lord's_ chosen people…."

"Her Hagness doesn't mess with most of us ordinary mortals," Gojyo stated. "We live, she watches. We're _entertaining_." He shrugged. "Once or twice, when Sanzo's been in really bad trouble, she's stepped in. Most of the time, she's sure we're mean enough to take care of ourselves."

"It's part of her agreement with the Asgard," Sanzo nodded. "I don't know all the details. But most people on Shangri-La get to live their own lives; good or bad."

"Only you're not one of the most," Dr. Jackson deduced.

Sanzo gave him a measuring look. "After the trial was over… after the verdict came out, and I suddenly had _three_ idiots in my official custody-"

_"Hey!"_ Gojyo and Goku protested as one.

_Thwack. Thwack._

_He's stalling_ , Hakkai knew. No surprise; this couldn't be easy. "After it was over, I wasn't sure what to do with myself," the healer stepped in, stroking Hakuryuu. "I didn't know what had been decided, beyond the gift of my life. I was… afraid. Gonou seemed to have gone completely quiet after we reached the temple, but…." He turned up an empty palm. "I asked the great high priest Jikaku - a very kind old man, very disappointed at the depths temple politics had sunk to - if there was anything I could do to atone for my actions. Anything that would allow me the grace of remaining among people who would - who _could_ \- stop Gonou, should he ever wake."

"How many times do I have to tell you it's not grace, Hakkai?" Sanzo almost growled. "It's what decent people do for each other." He glanced sideways, unwilling to admit to even a shred of such decency. "Anybody who deserves to call themselves people, anyway."

"Of course," Hakkai smiled. "Well. Jikaku winked at me, and took me out to the gardens. And while he dealt with a more pressing concern-" the head gardener, who'd been almost hysterical about a certain youkai child eating the ceremonial peaches right off the trees, not to mention a han'you littering the grounds with cigarettes "-he pointed me toward a certain young priest who was, ah, having difficulties with karma."

_"I don't know who I am anymore."_

_"Neither do I." Hakkai had sat down in the sunlight by the blond in new white robes, glancing at violet eyes no longer demonic, but… stunned, and oddly young. "Is there anything I can do to help?"_

_Violet glanced at him. "Everything you've been through, and you still ask-?"_

_He had to laugh, softly. "Old habits. I was a teacher-"_

_"I'm a lousy student." But there was something alive in Sanzo's face that hadn't been there before, even as he drew a cigarette out of his sleeve and flicked a lighter aflame. "You up to that?"_

_"You want me to teach you?" Hakkai had raised his brows. "You're a Sanzo. What could I possibly teach you?"_

_The blond breathed in smoke, let it out in a gray wisp. "Shangri-La."_

"Kanzeon offered me a spot as a trouble-shooter," Sanzo said at last. "Koumyou used to do that all the time, but with the way Gyokumen Koushu's escalated the violence in the past year, a lone priest is in over his head pretty damn quick. So I get to take these four with me." He looked the archaeologist straight in the eye. "We've stamped out a lot of fires this past year. Blasted a few underground labs. Saved some lives, maybe. And with luck, we're getting closer to finding out what Gyokumen Koushu wants, and where the hell she is. So we can _stop_ her."

_Permanently,_ Hakkai added silently, and knew he wasn't alone.

"But why doesn't Kanzeon-" Dr. Jackson stopped. And thought. "She can't, can she? She's got an agreement with the Asgard not to interfere in people's lives…."

"And unless the bitch-Queen goes after her temples straight on, the Merciful Goddess can't lift a finger," Gojyo stated dryly. "There are good people on Shangri-La, Dr. Jackson. They don't deserve what Koushu's doing to them." He paused. "And picking us for the job? Kanzeon's _smart_. We're not part of the youkai _or_ the human community on Shangri-La. The only side we're on is ours. Meaning when we go into a mess, we don't jump to conclusions about who started what or who deserves to die. We find the problem, we _fix_ the problem, much as we can - and so far we've managed to keep the race war Koushu's trying to set boiling down to a simmer. More youkai are picking up limiters. More of their human neighbors are reaching out, at least to the kids, and getting the ones who are still sane toward Chang'an or someplace out of Koushu's reach-"

"Wait a minute," the archaeologist broke in, frowning. "What do limiters have to do with this?"

"They seem to block the zatarc programming," Hakkai informed him. "We're not certain exactly how. I think it might have something to do with the way they redirect chi… the energies youkai can use. A youkai wearing a limiter isn't exactly in his true form, and it's that which the programming seems to need access to."

Dr. Jackson was shaking his head. "But if they grab you to program you in the first place, can't they just take it off?"

"First, taking a limiter off a youkai who doesn't _want_ it off is like loading a revolver, pointing it at your head, and pulling the trigger," Sanzo stated, level and cold. "Second - the problem on Shangri-La is, Koushu's found a way to _broadcast_ a limited kind of zatarc programming."

The archaeologist went white. "Oh my god."

"Yeah," Gojyo said shortly. "Ever walk into a village where everyone down to the _babies_ are rabid-berserk, and you've got to-" He looked away, fists clenched.

Hakkai had to wince himself, especially when Goku looked down, golden eyes utterly sad. _"Get him out of here,"_ Sanzo had said after the third wave broke against Hakkai's shield, walking forward with teeth clenched and gun drawn, the Maten Sutra already glowing on his shoulders.

When the light had ended, only they were left alive.

"It doesn't seem to work on humans, or han'you," Sanzo said now, still cold. "It doesn't work on all youkai, either - we've found sane ones in the middle of mobs, pulled them out, and tried to send them somewhere safe. Whatever it is, however it works, it's not a large-scale broadcast… and either the equipment's hard to move and conceal, or she's leery of the Heavenly Army, because there's a set radius around Chang'an that hasn't been touched. Her people hit a few villages at a time, move on, hit more." He fixed the archaeologist with his gaze. "We've got to go back. We've got to stop her."

Still pale, Dr. Jackson nodded. "Do you have a spare limiter? If Sam could analyze it, maybe we could find something."

"The temples have been working that angle," Gojyo noted. "Then again - I've heard Major Carter is _good_."

"Very, very good," the archaeologist agreed. And raised a brow at Sanzo.

"You can't have ours," the priest said flatly. "We head right into the thick of the messes; we've been _in_ broadcasts while they're happening. And Goku and Hakkai's limiters aren't… ordinary." He hesitated. "But if someone comes back with us, we know where to buy them."

"So do you have a key to open the Stargate," Dr. Jackson said thoughtfully. "We didn't find it when we, um…."

"Searched our luggage?" Gojyo suggested.

"Well…."

Sanzo let the sutra's scroll slide out of his sleeve. "This is my key, Dr. Jackson."

_And your weapon,_ Hakkai knew. _Though hopefully, the SGC will never see that._

"Wow, I'd love to read that," the archaeologist said reverently. "Er. If that's your key - how will anyone who goes with you get back to the SGC?"

"I can guarantee you passage home," Sanzo said levelly.

Thoughtfully, Dr. Jackson nodded. "I thought you might be able to do that."

"And you don't have any Sanzos here?" Goku said, awed. "Wow, you are pretty smart!"

"Jacob brought an image of Kanzeon Bosatsu," the archaeologist said simply. "The chakra's hard to miss." He stood. "Janet's got the symbiote tank set up in the infirmary, and if I know the general, he's just about got Jacob talked around to trying… whatever it is he's got that can get a Tok'ra out." He met Hakkai's gaze. "I hope this works."

 

 

 

 


	4. Janet 1, Tok'ra 0

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Do not mess with Janet. Do not mess with Janet's infirmary. Especially do not mess with Janet's patients. 
> 
> AKA, in which Sanzo finally gets a problem _solved._ And doesn't kill anyone doing it. Damn it.

_We should tell them the truth_ , Jacob argued mentally, heading toward the SGC infirmary. _At least tell them something._

: _We can't,_ : Selmak replied. : _Let them say what they will. We will not endanger our best chance to gain the strength to wipe out the System Lords once and for all._ :

_Gyokumen Koushu-_

: _Uses unpleasant methods, yes. You know, as I know, how few our numbers currently are… and of Kanzeon Bosatsu, and her slaves' unreasoning loyalty to her. Nothing less will suffice._ :

_Point_ , Jacob admitted. The Queen who'd told off Egeria as a "brainless, shortsighted, revenge-obsessed idiot who'd better stay _the hell off my planet_ ," wasn't about to be persuaded by anything less than total destruction.

And thanks to the Asgard, they couldn't destroy her. Not openly.

_But we can sure make her hurt._

After all, even if Kanzeon held her fellow System Lords in contempt, she did fear them. Why else would Gonou still be alive, if she weren't worried he was a spy whose death might bring even more trouble?

Jacob stopped just outside the door, sensing Sam, Teal'c, and the naquadah of another symbiote. _Here we go…._

Sam smiled at him from across the room, where she and Teal'c were waiting with Janet, a few more members of security, a brown-haired teenager and a-

_Oh, hell._

_Han'you_ , as they called them on Shangri-La. You couldn't mistake the red hair and eyes for anything else. And one who obviously knew what a body laced with naquadah smelled like, given that half-snarl of lips.

Most of the time, Jacob didn't think about how Selmak's presence in his body made him capable of out-muscling half of Stargate Command. Then again, most of the time, he didn't run into anything else short of a Jaffa that could take on that strength and stand a chance of winning.

_Strength enough to chance it, and crazy enough to_ do _it_ , Jacob thought darkly. From what Selmak remembered, even a full-blooded youkai might have been safer. Kanzeon's creations might be dangerous, unpredictable, cannibalistic predators, but they at least had a wild animal's wariness around humans. Han'you were like feral dogs; not wild enough to stick to their own kind, and not nearly human enough to be trusted.

_We've got to warn Janet. She has no idea what kind of danger someone's brought into her infirmary._

: _It will have to wait,_ : Selmak cautioned. : _Even if we whispered, he would likely hear it._ :

_Guess we'll have to trust Security_ , Jacob told himself. _Focus on the first problem_. Which was a wary, green-eyed brunet in borrowed civvies, sitting on Janet's table.

: _Attractive young man,_ : Selmak commented, looking through his eyes. : _Not Gonou's preferred type of host-_ :

_But a_ lot _like his type in something else,_ Jacob pointed out wryly. "You really are Kanan's brother, aren't you?"

"I'm sorry," came a soft murmur of Abydonian. "I don't understand?"

"We'll have to fix that," Jacob stated, switching languages to match. _Stay calm. Just stay calm, and act like everything's normal, until we can get the han'you out of here._ "I've been meaning to hook Sammie up with a few extra languages if she's interested… and you have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

The brunet frowned, the way Jacob had seen Sammie frown when she tried to grasp some of the fragments Jolinar had left behind. "There is a device, I think," he said to the others. "One that… uses stored memories to grant languages, so one is not out of place?"

"Way to give Daniel a bad day," Janet murmured.

"Are you kidding? He'd love it," Sam said, lighting up. "Especially if we do end up visiting. I don't think Dr. Genjyo's got time to give us all a crash course in Koryo."

"Genjyo made it?" Jacob raised his eyebrows, surprised. "From what our report said, he hit the water. And nobody's survived getting washed down _that_ river."

"There is a report?" Teal'c asked, dark eyes level.

Jacob waggled a hand. "Sketchy. From an observer at a distance. Pretty much what we gave you before. 'Goa'uld shoot, everybody dies'."

"Not quite everybody," the han'you muttered.

Jacob frowned. That sounded almost personal. Then again, if one of George's people had gotten close enough to a halfbreed to convince him to walk through the Stargate, the han'you probably did feel personally involved.

: _As would one of Earth's great cats, when its trainer was upset,_ : Selmak commented coolly.

_He's an intelligent being, Selmak,_ Jack argued.

: _Tigers are not unintelligent. That's never stopped one from eating a human it doesn't like, has it?_ :

Point. You could raise a tiger from birth, trust it for years - and then one day someone would make a wrong move, and those teeth would snap your neck.

_Oh, George is not going to be happy about this…._

"Still, it's further confirmation that we got the right people back," Janet put in. "Not that I could mistake you for anybody else, Sha, but given the various kind-of clones the universe has thrown at the SGC over the years…." She shrugged, and glanced back at Jacob. "Ambassador Carter, this is Captain Joseph Sha, Son Goku… and Cho Hakkai."

_Say_ what?

 : _I heard it as well._ : Selmak was equally stunned. : _Did she truly say that-_ :

_The han'you's supposed to be their missing Air Force captain?_ Jacob finished. _Yeah. Which is crazy. George has to have noticed-_

: _Perhaps not. They can pass as human, for short periods of time,_ : Selmak said thoughtfully. : _Combine that with relief in finding one who was lost - any being's judgment could be clouded._ :

_Not George,_ Jacob thought firmly. _And not Jack. You know O'Neill; he's paranoid about things even a little off standard human. He wouldn't leave Janet down here with a threat._

: _That he_ knew _about,_ : Selmak reminded him. : _We will have to tell the SGC more of youkai._ :

Yeah. Because obviously Dr. Genjyo hadn't. "So you and Dr. Genjyo both made it back?" Jacob said neutrally. "I'm kind of surprised he's not here…."

"He's talking things over with Colonel O'Neill and Dr. Jackson," Sha said dryly. "Which is a nice excuse for keeping the doc sitting on his hands instead of strangling you. He'll probably be civil after you get Gonou out. But right now? We've had a bad week, on top of a bad month, on top of a couple bad _years_ -"

"And I don't think we want blood all over Dr. Janet's nice clean floors," Goku smirked, hands curling as if to grip empty air.

: _It's not air he means to grasp!_ :

Jacob reined in Selmak's panic, trying not to stare at the glints of gold in brown hair. _Is that_ -

: _A limiter. Mother of us all, there are_ two _of them!_ :

George, Jacob decided, was _definitely_ in over his head.

"You can't hold my father responsible for what Gonou-" Sam was saying.

"No offense, Major," Sha snarled, "but _somebody_ better be fucking _responsible!_ "

"Gojyo. Goku," Hakkai said quietly. "We should solve the problem first." He looked at Jacob. "What do we do?"

Jacob produced his healing device. "With a Goa'uld," _which you might still be, hell if I believe Gonou would take someone against their will,_ "this wouldn't work. But we've… encouraged our people to leave unsuitable hosts before. Usually because they were booby-trapped by a System Lord, but- I should be able to coax him out."

Sha pointed at the device. "So. That needs to get through, unfiltered?" He glanced at Hakkai. "Damn. They're going to have to come off."

"I'm afraid you're right," Hakkai acknowledged. "That's not really safe…."

Sha rolled his eyes. "Come on, Hakkai. When's the last time you lost it without them? We'll keep people back, and nobody'll make any sudden moves. And if all else fails, Goku can knock you out."

_Wait a minute_ , Jacob thought uneasily. _Is he saying…._

"That's true," Hakkai said, slightly more cheerful. And looked at Janet. "Please don't be afraid."

"Afraid of what?" the doctor asked carefully.

"Limiters warp energy," Sha said frankly. "If we want this to work, Hakkai needs to take his off. So, if everybody could just get back a little… and take your fingers _off_ the triggers, we're going to have a little light show…." He shooed security toward the walls.

Deliberately, Hakkai gripped three silver cuffs, and pulled them off as one.

_Light show_ , Jacob thought, mouth dry, as Hakkai _glowed_ in place. _He's-_

: _Another of Kanzeon's pets,_ : Selmak finished. : _Gonou would never have taken a youkai for a host!_ :

_We'll see, won't we?_ Jacob swallowed, feeling Selmak struggle to slow down his panicked heartbeat. Frankly, he thought he _deserved_ a little panic. Instead of the quiet, polite brunet-

Well, the creature sitting there still had brown hair, though it was long enough now to almost brush his elbows. But the hair didn't hide the vine-like markings shifting on pale skin - no, some of them were actual _vines_ , curling along wrists and neck. And it definitely didn't hide the slit-pupiled eyes, the fangs, or the two-inch razor-sharp claws….

"Well." The voice was _almost_ the same; though it seemed to have a faint rumble under it, like a resting tiger. "Now what do you need to do?"

_Besides get manacles and a zat in here?_ Jacob thought wryly.

: _It would be prudent._ : Selmak considered the matter. : _Only great pain does not always stop a youkai, and George would likely object to our killing them._ :

_You think?_ Jacob quipped.

: _Though if one of these creatures eviscerates us, we will be in no position to respect what General Hammond would prefer._ :

_They got at least one of George's people home, Selmak. We're going to have to give them the benefit of the doubt. Like it or not._ "All right," Jacob said aloud, "if you could just lie down…."

* * *

 

"I've got more details back in Chang'an," Sanzo concluded, silver ring catching the lights as he moved one of the photocopies of Hakkai's maps to match more accurately with another. Marker-scribbles stood out on contoured images, sketching zatarc outbreaks and a rough timeline. Hakuryuu shifted on his shoulder, claws piercing the thin shirt to catch on the leather beneath; Sanzo absently reached up to scratch behind white horns. "On the road, we tend to keep most of this in our heads-"

"So if Koushu's people catch you, they don't know what you know." Colonel O'Neill leaned back in his conference room chair beside Dr. Jackson, and glanced casually at the general.

At least, it _looked_ casual. If you couldn't sense the pulse of : _interest_ : and : _satisfaction of suspicions confirmed._ :

_What the hell did I just say?_

Hakuryuu fixed the SGC personnel with her own suspicious look, then went back to mock-preening. : _O'Neill in Air Force formal uniform, covered with medals, leading host of soldiers. Sanzo in crown, preceding blurry hosts of Heavenly Army. Table between; pens, paper._ :

Odd, mosaic images; Hakuryuu was lifting common elements out of more than one mind, then. So it wasn't just Dr. Jackson being overly optimistic. The SGC was seriously considering the possibility that he was an offworld dignitary. Which was good - but _odd_.

_Though they're seriously out of their minds, if they think I'd ever be leading an army_ , Sanzo thought wryly. _Those morons in the infirmary are enough trouble._

"Transport rings all over the planet," Dr. Jackson observed, fascinated. "Roads, small industries; god, if this is right, Chang'an has over a million people."

"Plus point two, last census I read." Sanzo flicked a glance over them, reading the currents of emotion. _Don't hit it straight on; they'll know something's up if you do._ "I'm going to take a wild guess that this isn't what you're used to seeing."

"To be honest? Even if worlds like this were common, information of this depth isn't what we expected," General Hammond said levelly.

_That's the opening I want…._ "Because I work for Kanzeon?" Sanzo let a hint of a smirk touch his face. "The SGC isn't going to attack her. And I'd like to think you've got more ethics than to hand over any of this to the Tok'ra without warning us first."

Dr. Jackson swallowed. Hammond frowned. O'Neill looked dryly amused. "She's a System Lord. Why wouldn't we go after her?"

"Outside of her bargain with the Asgard, which I suggest you ask them about? You've got bigger problems," Sanzo shot back. "Apophis, Nirrti, Ba'al, Osiris - it'd be stupid to slap Kanzeon in the face when she's never done anything to you, or to Earth. And I really hope people in the SGC are _not_ that stupid."

"Kouryuu, son," the general said compassionately, "if you go down this road-"

"You don't _want_ me back, General," Sanzo cut in. _I made my choice. Why the hell do you think you've got a right to feel sorry for it?_ "Like Dr. Jackson's already guessed, a Sanzo is one of the few people Kanzeon's allowed to _directly interfere_ with. If she feels so inclined. You don't need that kind of grief. Besides. I've seen too much, and done too much, and I have an annoying tendency to shoot people I don't like. On Shangri-La, that works." Terrified the acolytes, yeah, but worked. "And Goku goes where I go. Locked up under concrete and rock? He'd be miserable. And you couldn't let him out of the Mountain. Just one accident with his limiter, and-" _people would die_ "-you can't cover up claws, fangs, and bad attitude."

"And it doesn't matter what you want," Dr. Jackson said neutrally, "because a Sanzo is a Sanzo until he dies."

_Don't you_ dare _pity me!_ "Whatever you're about to say, _don't_ ," Sanzo stated, low and dangerous. "I only have two regrets." He held them up, a finger at a time, kote plainly visible. "I couldn't get to the other survivors before Ni screwed them over. And I couldn't save Koumyou." Fingers clenched, before he brought them back down to the table. "Captain Sha wanted to come back. I brought him. I suggest you ask if he wants to stay."

"Whatever you may or may not have done, you were a civilian," the general stated. "Captain Sha is quite another matter."

Sanzo eyed them, suspicious. "Why?"

Dr. Jackson cleared his throat, radiating discomfort. O'Neill's expression was bland; a perfect mask for the : _loathing_ : and : _grim understanding_ : rolling off the man. "Somebody mentioned a village full of zatarcs," the colonel said coolly.

_Damn._ And, how dare they. Gojyo carried enough guilt. To have to possibly face a courtroom full of people in the uniform he still respected, handing down sentence on a situation none of them had _ever_ faced, where formerly innocent people had lost their minds, and _were not coming back_ -

_You don't get to do that to him. If anyone shoots the kappa, it's going to be me._ "Once we knew what we'd found, I had Sha and Hakkai get Goku out of there," Sanzo said flatly. "They had no part in what happened next." He eyed Dr. Jackson. "Maybe I didn't explain. _We_ don't work for Kanzeon. _I_ work for Kanzeon. They work for _me_."

"An Air Force officer," O'Neill said grimly, "doesn't stand by and watch while his _associate_ kills civilians." He paused. "Even if it was… unavoidable."

Sanzo bared his teeth. "Believe me, he didn't have time."

Which was somehow more than he should have said; he knew that from the quick flash of : _calculation_ : from O'Neill. But damn it, it was true.

_This isn't Shangri-La. I don't know the laws here; I can't protect Gojyo without violence. And if it comes to that-_

"Cheep!" Hakuryuu stared toward the hall, fangs bared. : _Human-scent. Arrogance and fear. Scalpels, blood, chains for monsters-from-the-'Gate._ :

"Someone's coming," Sanzo stated, glancing at the door. "And he's trouble."

"Dr. Genjyo?" Hammond frowned.

The phone on the table rang. The general eyed him, and put it on speaker. "Yes?"

_"General?"_ came a doubtful secretary's voice. _"There's a Major Rayner here, from Area 51. He says he has orders to take custody of the… variant humans."_

"Custody of the bodies?" Dr. Jackson ventured.

_"He's not being specific, sir."_

"Have him wait," Hammond directed. "It should only be for a few minutes."

_"Yes, sir."_

The general hit mute, and glared. "I know the use of concealed technology means that System Lords' high priests sometimes actually do hear a _supposedly_ higher power, but I refuse to believe you're getting communications from a Goa'uld here."

"Hakuryuu has very good ears," Sanzo shrugged.

"Good enough to hear someone more than nine levels up," Colonel O'Neill observed. "Nifty."

_…Oh, damn it._

: _Cross-gust of wind?_ :

Which was as close to an "oops" as he was likely to get out of the white furball. : _Robed arm lifted to shelter. Be ready to move._ :

"Janet said Hakuryuu _knows_ when people mean you harm," Dr. Jackson said thoughtfully. "I should have thought about that before. You don't like the Tok'ra, but that's Hakkai down in the infirmary, and you care about him. You wouldn't leave him to face Jacob alone."

"In case you didn't notice, I didn't," Sanzo said levelly. _I "care about him"? Dr. Jackson, if I ever get you alone, we are going to have a talk about prying into other people's business. Punctuated with lead._

"You're a little _too_ much like Jack," the archaeologist observed, almost smiling. "You _wouldn't_ leave them to face a Tok'ra alone. Unless you were very, very sure you'd know if something went wrong - and know in time to do something about it. Which means you're not counting on us to keep you informed."

As one, the two officers' gaze went to the white dragon.

_Damn._ But maybe he could still work an advantage out of this. "Would you believe I'm clairvoyant?" Sanzo shrugged.

"No," O'Neill said dryly.

_Good._ "Dragons are telepathic."

Dead silence.

"Kyuu?" Hakuryuu tried to look innocent.

"Exactly when were you planning to mention you brought a _telepath_ into a secure facility?" the general glared.

"What, like Thor doesn't wander in here any time he feels like it?" Sanzo pointed out. "Hakuryuu could care less about SGC secrets. Hakkai is her person. She looks after him. Us, too, because Hakkai likes us; as far as she's concerned, we're his flock. And when somebody wants to hurt her flock, she lets us know."

: _Worry_ : and : _anger,_ : tainting the air like bitter smoke.

He was _not_ going to roll his eyes, Sanzo thought. It was undignified, and if he was going to pry the general loose from this idiotic idea of bringing Gojyo up on charges, he needed all the dignity he could carry off.

Besides, O'Neill did enough eye-rolling for all three of them.

"It's not a Vulcan mind meld," Sanzo said sarcastically, touching the dragon's shoulder before she could take off to singe Hammond's retreating hairline. : _Human - my target. Watch, listen; get to Hakkai if there's trouble._ : "All she looks at is the surface. Why someone's angry, or sad, or happy to see her. The guy upstairs must be gloating about us pretty loudly." Not that Hakuryuu couldn't dig deeper, if she wanted to. Usually, she didn't.

"Kind of hard on a guy's privacy," O'Neill observed, tone too light for the dead seriousness in his eyes as he-

: _Charlie - cordite and blood - my fault-_ :

Hakuryuu hissed, head lowered and wings spread, as Sanzo held onto himself through the drowning wave of : _grief_ : and : _guilt._ : He'd kept his cool when he'd forced a rapist and his victim apart; he wasn't going to lose it now because the colonel was a smart bastard with an experimental bent. "Whatever you're up to, she doesn't like it."

"But she's not telling you what it is." The colonel's eyes were hard, openly poised to pounce.

"No." Sanzo shrugged. "Must not be related to us." And Hakuryuu knew damn well he didn't need help to sense anything _that_ strong.

_You think I'm going to crack because you throw a little pain at me? Hakkai lost his sister, his town, his own body. Gojyo lost his men, and has to live with the human in him wanting_ home _while the youkai wants_ clan; _every time we fight Kougaiji's people, he's bleeding inside. Even Goku, with all those years of_ alone _under his grin…._

_I live with pain, Colonel. I don't break for them. I sure as hell won't break for you._

O'Neill's eyes narrowed.

Sanzo gripped the ragged edge of his temper, fingertips biting into wood. This was a challenge, plain as any youkai's drawn blade. And he'd spent the past two years learning _not to back down_.

_I could crush him. Like an eggshell._

Power burned in him like fire, demanding to be used. Chants Koumyou had drilled into his head fluttered in memory, like paper scrolls cracking in the wind. _Paralysis. Pain. Deflect. Distract. Cast out. Barrier shattering-_

_Healing._

Sanzo seized those words, that shaped intent. Not safe; not safe to touch any of that power, not here. But far, far safer to have that flexing in the back of his mind, when the lava heat of _the mortal dares!_ threatened to break free.

"Jack?" Dr. Jackson said, very warily.

O'Neill _smirked_.

_That. Is. Enough._

Lava shifting to ice in his veins, Sanzo shook off civility, meeting that look the same as he would Dokugakuji's. And cut his gaze away, to the general, just as he would to Prince Kougaiji.

Holding steady, Hammond nodded once.

_Steel in his soul_ , Sanzo thought, some of his irritation fading in the face of that honest : _respect_.: The sudden, wary : _surprise_ : from O'Neill didn't hurt either. _Good. If the SGC wants to deal with Kanzeon, they'll need it - and the hag_ definitely _deserves the headache._

But that would be in the future, if ever. For now - the way Dr. Jackson had almost hit the floor was _interesting_. White scales warm under his fingertips, and…. : _Hakuryuu? Listening-to-Jackson - easy? Hard?_ : He'd _thought_ it was fairly easy to read the man, on first sight - but he was a Sanzo. You had to be wrapped inside shields inside running water inside a perfect poker face _not_ to be easy.

And he wasn't about to try reaching deeper into the man himself. Not with suspicious, intelligent eyes on him; not to mention O'Neill's poisonous : _grief_ : still fogging the air.

: _Faint,_ : the dragon replied, after a moment's consideration. : _Quiet. Mostly-deaf. But not all. Person for another flock?_ : A much poorer one, in her estimation, than her own; but not all dragons wanted to be well-heard.

Sanzo pictured a fire-breathing flock nesting in the 'Gateroom ceiling, and stifled a snicker. : _Maybe. Will think._ : Very, _very_ interesting. Koumyou had said some humans and youkai had a faint empathy that had nothing to do with Kanzeon's meddling. Sanzo had : _felt_ : that empathy himself in more than a few village elders on Shangri-La, but he hadn't been so sure it had nothing to do with Kanzeon. Priests _weren't_ all celibate, after all; and the Merciful Goddess had been unleashing psychics on her people for centuries-

: _Annoyance_ : and : _determination_.: Close.

_Maps_ , Sanzo thought, shuffling them together to conceal inside a folder. Whoever this guy was, he did _not_ need more information on Shangri-La than Hammond decided to give him. "Looks like Major Rayner didn't wait."

And they _still_ jumped when Rayner knocked on the door. Sheesh.

Leaning against a wall out of direct line-of-sight, Sanzo stroked a white mane as the military types saluted each other and Dr. Jackson tried to look innocuous.

"My orders, General-"

A _look_ from Hammond, and the dark-haired major shut up as the general read.

Sanzo hid a grin. If he could get Hammond to drop this idiotic court-martial idea, he might actually get to _like_ the guy.

_He and O'Neill - they're both clan leaders. But the colonel thinks he's got the right to take_ my _clan apart._

Which was about the worst thing you could threaten a youkai with, period. Rape, mutilation, even becoming a Jaffa - a youkai might endure _anything_ rather than see their clan ripped asunder. There was a reason Gonou and Hakkai had had to kill over a thousand members of the Centipede Clan, and it went far beyond simple, bloody revenge. Sadist or not, murderer or not, the Hyakugen Maoh had been their king. Easier for a youkai to walk into fire than turn their backs on that bond.

Which was why as long as any of that clan survived, Hakkai was a target. Ni's sadism had a particularly whimsical bent….

_For which I will shoot him. As many times as it takes._

Cho Hakkai wasn't just youkai. He _was_ Centipede Clan. And he was powerful. Strong enough to be a clan leader, even if Hakkai himself was looking to Sanzo as _his_.

Meaning the survivors not only hated Hakkai, they _feared_ him. And kept their distance, unless they meant to launch an immediate attack. Because to come close to Hakkai, for any length of time… to risk drinking in that scent, that power, that gentle protectiveness of anyone he felt responsible for….

Hakkai had what Centipede's survivors wanted in a leader. What they _needed._

If it wouldn't get him killed, Sanzo could almost feel sorry for them.

So far he'd managed to keep Hakkai away from any Centipede who _didn't_ plan to kill him. Which was a mercy for everyone. Hakkai was kind, Hakkai was a healer, Hakkai would _want_ to pick up and care for an orphan, even one of the clan he'd destroyed….

And Hakkai had a dark streak that fucking _did not_ need to be encouraged. Chaining a youkai by instinct to a man who despised the very blood in their veins - hell, no. Sanzo was _not_ going to let that happen.

He'd been working on Hakkai's hate almost as long as he knew the man. Like it or not, Hakkai _was_ youkai now, and hating yourself that much wasn't healthy. They'd made progress. Some. Like dragging lead chains, with Gonou's instability weighting them every step of the way. If they could just get the Tok'ra _out_ ….

_And do it before O'Neill tries to pry at us again_ , Sanzo thought darkly. _Gojyo's ours, and I'm the leader, and if the colonel won't back off, one of us is going to kill him._

In which case, it'd better be him. Gojyo would be scarred for life. Goku was old enough to kill, but innocent enough not to understand hurting someone he thought should be on their side. And Hakkai - well. Hakkai wouldn't have a problem, but the Tok'ra might be a bit tetchy about helping afterward.

A last flip of a page, and the general looked up. "Major," Hammond said levelly, "are you acquainted with Colonel Maybourne?"

"Sir?" Rayner looked helpful, if clueless.

_Lie_ , Sanzo thought, feeling a scrape of : _wariness_ : under the bland façade.

"I'm asking," the general went on, apparently calm, "because the last few times I received requests of such sweeping magnitude, there were definite _irregularities_ in the situation."

And now O'Neill's cool, calm, take-you-apart-before-breakfast look was turned on Rayner. A nice change.

"I've been read in on the current progress at Area 51," Rayner stated. "I've heard scuttlebutt about those events, sir, everyone has. But I'm not acquainted with the man."

_Not exactly a lie. But not truth, either._

"Good." Hammond's face didn't show a hint of his doubt. "Unfortunately, Major, the SGC's jurisdiction in this matter is not absolute," the general went on thoughtfully. "I'd like to introduce you to Priest Genjyo Sanzo."

O'Neill almost choked. Jackson's brows shot up, and a distinct : _giggle_ : tickled Sanzo's nerves. Hammond quelled them both with a glance.

_If I don't end up killing him, I could get to like this guy._ "Major," Sanzo said dryly as the man turned. _And three, two-_

"Gack!"

Sanzo didn't need : _dragon-snickers_ : to know Hakuryuu's grin was all teeth. "I take it he's requesting the bodies for… scientific study."

"And I would respectfully add our request to theirs," Hammond said politely. "At the very least, in the case of the deceased hosts. The System Lords, after all, are a mutual hazard to both Earth and Shangri-La. If this would not conflict with local funerary practices?"

O'Neill's bland expression might as well have shouted that he thought his commander was short a few bricks of a full load, even if there was : _satisfaction at thwarted enemies_ : under his glance at Rayner. Dr. Jackson was a study in polite innocence… or as close as the archaeologist could manage, given the persistent : _giggling_ : behind the glasses.

"Cremation is common practice," Sanzo said levelly. "Normally, in the presence of the family… but in this case, they may be difficult to locate, or dead. It's not unheard of for strangers to give grace to those fallen on a far battlefield. I would ask that Dr. Fraiser's people photograph faces and birthmarks, so we may have news to bring to any seeking their dead; and that when the dead have taught you what they can, the ashes be returned to Shangri-La, to the Temple of the Setting Sun in Chang'an."

"I don't see why-" Rayner began.

Sanzo stared him into silence. "I further require an hour with the deceased, along with witnesses who will return with me to Shangri-La." He glanced at the general. "I will chant the sutra for the dead. Gyokumen Koushu stole their lives; she will not taint the deaths for those who may have survived." _I chant for the living, not the dead. Always._ "Examine the zatarcs. Find what you can."

"Thank you," Hammond inclined his head. "Well. I believe that covers your request, Major."

Rayner's jaw tightened. "With all due respect, General, you know it doesn't."

_Enough of this_ , Sanzo decided. He hadn't had a drink in too long, he hadn't had a smoke in much longer, and the whipsawing of : _hostility_ : and : _anticipation_ : _and :smug satisfaction_ : between the three military men was enough to set his teeth on edge. Dr. Jackson was at least keeping most of his : _worry_ : to himself, but-

: _Threat to flock,_ : Hakuryuu decided, and it was all he could do to keep her from barbecuing the man then and there.

"I don't like you."

Four pairs of eyes _stared_ at Sanzo.

"No one is running tests on anyone without informed consent," Sanzo said bluntly. "No one is running tests, period, unless Dr. Fraiser is the one running them. If she can't, here or on Shangri-La, it won't happen. I don't care what your orders are; we're not leaving the SGC to go anywhere but home." He eyed the major with contempt. "Not that you had any intent of bringing us to Area 51 in the first place."

"I- what? General, you can't possibly allow this man to-"

_Enough_. Sanzo took a long step forward, gaze unhidden by his bangs. And the chant keening in the back of his mind was _not_ healing.

: _Fear,_ : he willed at the man, power uncoiling like a dragon of light and fire. On his shoulder Hakuryuu mantled her wings, buffering her mind against the coming storm.

_I'm going to pay for this later…._

Later would have to take care of itself. This threat needed to be handled _now_ , or no one of Shangri-La would ever be safe.

"Area 51 is just your cover." Step. "We'd never have made it there." Step. "You'd have held us until you thought you had what you wanted, and then you'd have dissected us."

Bare yards away, Rayner trembled, pale as milk. "N-no, I…."

"The people you meant to tamper with," Sanzo stated, low and cold, "have been chained before. They'd rather die than let it happen again. And they'd certainly rather kill you." He kept his tone even, factual. "I'd say we don't like killing people, but that would be a lie. We do what it takes to see the next sunrise. And humans die so very easily." He let his gaze flick to O'Neill's. "Well… _most_ humans."

"Y-you… s-stay away…."

"Who do you work for?" Sanzo said coldly. _"Talk."_

Eyes rolling back, Rayner collapsed.

_Damn it._ Sanzo eyed the unconscious idiot, barely paying attention to a quieter thump, O'Neill's startled "Danny!" and the general's growled, "I want an _explanation_ for this-"

"He's not alone," Sanzo bit out, past security before they knew he was moving. "Guys like that are never alone!"

* * *

 

_Man,_ Gojyo thought, dodging a bullet as Janet yelled and Goku got between the idiots and Hakkai, _I thought we left the assassins back on Shangri-La!_

Good news was, they weren't youkai assassins. A few quick strikes, and it would all be over.

Bad news was, they _weren't_ youkai assassins. And disabling humans was a _lot_ harder than killing them.

_Just when things were going so well…._

It'd taken most of an hour. Long enough that Major Carter had made an excuse to get called away for a science-lab emergency and Teal'c had, politely, left for a prearranged lesson in Jaffa tactics; a nice way of granting them a smidgen of privacy as Jacob plumbed Hakkai's brainstem.

_Either that, or neither of 'em liked remembering how they_ didn't _get Jolinar out,_ Gojyo thought.

But Ambassador Carter had finally brightened, beckoning Janet over with the wheeled tank. Hakkai had shuddered, bone-deep, a hint of something dark appearing between his lips-

And these bozos had crashed the party, trying to hold everybody at gunpoint.

_Sorry, guys. You're not Sanzo._

Sure, ordinary bullets could hurt a youkai. Even without Sanzo's extra oomph to block chi-healing. Human or demon, lead poisoning of the brain tended to be fatal.

But you had to _hit_ the brain, first.

And when it came to aim, these guys _definitely_ weren't Sanzo.

_Not enough room for shakajou; Goku's having trouble even with Nyoi-bo that short…._

Well, hell. Wasn't his first close-quarters brawl. Damn sure wasn't going to be his last, even if they were packing heat. "Keep going!" Gojyo yelled over his shoulder, grabbing Trigger-happy before he could shoot again, and delivering some bare-knuckle arguments as to why that would be a _bad_ idea. "Get the bastard out!"

"Like hell am I taking him out of a host in this-" the Tok'ra started.

_Smack._

_The doc just slapped him?_ Gojyo bared teeth in a grin, even as he body-slammed Trigger-happy into one of his friends, putting them both down for the count. _Knew she was my kind of lady!_

_Crunch._ Followed by a shrill scream.

_Yet another reason why you don't bring a gun to a youkai fight,_ Gojyo thought, getting a bloody glimpse as one of Goku's opponents folded, gun and hand crushed together by a grip that could bend steel bars.

And then he had to let the monkey fend for himself, busy with a guy who'd _really_ paid attention in his hand-to-hand training.

_Just stay down, Hakkai_ , Gojyo willed the man, focused on the next move, the next counter, the next breath. _We can handle ourselves._ _Stay down, get that thing out-_

Movement near the door. Not the reinforcements Gojyo was half-dreading, but one of the bozos who'd gotten smart and backed up for room to fire-

Kote-armored hands grabbed gun arm and throat, and there wasn't even a squawk.

A punch, flesh and bone giving way, and Gojyo glared down at his opponent. "You going to be smart, or are you going to be dead? _Stay down_."

"We got it!" Janet exulted, gloved hands stuffing something dark and sinuous into the tank as Goku's bo wove red-and-gold defense in their last enemy's face.

"You're alone," Sanzo said coldly; a flash of white behind him as Hakuryuu sized up the situation and flew out of the line of fire. "You're outnumbered. General Hammond is on his way with enough airmen to grind you into a thin paste. Unless you want to die, put it down."

"Enough playing around," Jacob snarled. His right hand came up-

And the gold gleaming on it was _not_ a healing device.

_Oh, fuck._

Much later, Gojyo would reflect that a snapshot of that instant could have told anyone who in the infirmary had or had not faced a Goa'uld. They hit the ground.

The gunman didn't.

You could never forget the _thoom_ of shock-waved air. The gunman flew-

And, as Gojyo was sure he, Hakkai, and Sanzo wished they could have pounded into the idiot Tok'ra way before now, his finger _still_ pulled the trigger.

Transparent panels shattered.

_Gods damn it, loose Tok'ra - the doc!_

Violet flickered, a weak dome of energy; just enough to bounce black sinuousness away. "Hakkai!" Janet gasped.

The doors slammed open with a thunder of footsteps. "Everybody, freeze!" O'Neill shouted.

Squealing, the symbiote sprang to an unconscious body on the floor, burrowing into the side of the man's neck in a bright splash of blood.

Dead silence.

_Well, damn._

"Damn it, grab him!" O'Neill snarled.

Goku was already moving, Nyoi-bo vanishing as he grabbed and twisted the poor bastard's wrists together behind his back, disabling the glowing-eyed man with effortless strength. Security produced tranks and handcuffs, and the guy was down for the count.

"Oh, Jacob," O'Neill started, tone as light and dangerous as Kanzeon in a bad mood, "you got some _'splainin'_ to do…."

Not that Gojyo was paying attention, given Janet's low curse and that hint of familiar blood in the air. "Lie back," she directed Hakkai, pushing on his chest with no scent of fear of vines, fangs, or claws. "You're bleeding."

"He wasn't-" Hakkai coughed, crimson dabbing his lips, "careful…."

"Shut up and let her do her job," Sanzo growled, holding Hakkai's shoulders. Violet eyes slid half-closed, and the blond's lips moved in a silent chant.

"Gen-! You _shouldn't_ -"

"Shut _up_ , Hakkai." The unvoiced chant went on; coiling and concentrated, but this close, Gojyo could _feel_ the almost-static in the air.

: _Live. Be well. Safety, protection…._ :

A healing chant. Sanzo could do them as well as any other spell-casting priest, though he usually didn't get the chance. Projective empathy convincing the body it was _safe_ , other people would handle the fighting, and every remaining resource could now be devoted to getting better. Not as fast or flashy as a healing device, but it had saved more lives than Gojyo cared to count. Including theirs.

Goku pressed in next to him, watching wide-eyed as Janet tipped Hakkai's head back and shone a penlight to see how much damage had been done. "Not as much blood as I thought, but- God, that bastard was a butcher," the doc bit out. "Damn it, you're _wearing_ a healing device, but I know how long it took Sam to get that-"

"Just show him where to aim," Gojyo jumped in, relieved to be able to contribute something to this mess. "Hakkai's never had Gonou helping him heal."

Red brows shot up, but she helped him position Hakkai's right hand, only glancing at Sanzo once. A nod at pain-filled green eyes, a soft glow….

Janet's shoulders relaxed in a deep sigh of relief. "Looks good." Another breath, and she smiled, letting him sit up. "Congratulations."

"We did it!" Goku jumped at the man, grinning bright as the sun. "Hakkai! You're okay! You won!"

"I did?" Hakkai said, disbelieving, holding onto the kid by sheer surprised reflex. "I… did." He glanced at Gojyo, slitted green eyes oddly innocent. "He's gone? No, not gone, oh gods-"

"He is _not_ your problem anymore," Sanzo said fiercely, if a little breathlessly. "That guy Gonou took over came in here to take all of you away and turn you over to guys who'd _love_ to apprentice with Ni, and you are _not_ going to feel guilty about _anything_ that happens to him, Hakkai."

_Damn,_ Gojyo thought. _Is Sanzo shaking?_

"I won," Hakkai said, still stunned. "We won… but I…."

Even catching that sudden shift of scent, it still tore at Gojyo's heart to see Hakkai curl into Sanzo and _whimper_.

"Shh," the blond murmured; allowing the touch, sitting down on the table himself to let Hakkai nuzzle his neck, fangs closing gingerly on a frailer human jaw. "He's gone, and it hurts - and part of you is angry, and part just wants to die…. We're _here_ , Hakkai. We're not leaving." An armored hand combed through long brown hair, bare fingertips tracing comfort over nape and scalp. "Shh…."

_Hakkai tries so hard to act human,_ Gojyo thought, heartsick; crowding in with Goku so the healer could catch a good whiff of them all. _He's really not going to like it, that these guys saw him… not. Damn._

"Um." Colonel O'Neill, and couldn't the man take a hint and _go away?_ "Dr. Genjyo. Those are… really big teeth, there."

In English, at least. So Hakkai _probably_ wouldn't rip his throat out.

"He's youkai," Sanzo said levelly, in the same language. "I'm his clan leader. I'm as safe as you would be with any of your people. Probably safer." All the same, he dislodged Hakkai's teeth-

And carefully, firmly, bit down on the side of the healer's throat.

_Don't know what freaks me out more,_ Gojyo thought. _That Sanzo has to do that - or that he_ doesn't care.

Though if he were honest - and the han'you was, with himself, sometimes - what really crawled under his skin was-

_I want that. Here. Now. Sanzo's_ mine, _too._

It'd freaked the _hell_ out of him the first time Dokugakuji put teeth to his throat. He'd been a bit more pissy than usual that day - prison tended to do that to a guy - and the older youkai had finally lost patience. Clawed hands had grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, shook him-

And whirled him around into a backwards hug. With _teeth_.

"Don't fight," Dokugakuji had growled against his skin. "You're safe, kid. Understand me? Right here, right now - you're _safe_."

And he _was_ , that was the hell of it. Because someone stronger in his clan was holding him, and making it obvious that he was _not_ going to be killed. Someone who _smelled_ right, and _moved_ right, and neither of those was human….

_I am so. Damn. Messed up._

Dokugakuji had never asked him for loyalty. Ever. Which was a good thing. Because after a few months of _that_ … forget sex. _Safety-with-clan_ was a stronger lure than any pretty lady could _ever_ be.

_And I was going to stay here. Without my friends… no, goddamn it, without my_ clan.

Oh hell. He'd have been climbing the walls inside a week.

The colonel's silence was deafening.

Relaxing slightly in the warmth of the huddle, Gojyo gave O'Neill his best _Who, me?_ look, polished in countless games of mahjong. "Something wrong?"

"Is he really that crazy, or is impersonating a lion tamer something Dr. Genjyo does for kicks?" O"Neill asked dryly.

Still soothing Hakkai, Sanzo flipped the colonel off.

Goku's snicker, Gojyo reflected as O'Neill's eyes narrowed, probably did _not_ help.

"Alpha, subordinates, and a cub," Janet murmured, half to herself. "Why didn't I see that before?"

_See what?_ Gojyo almost asked. Only Hakuryuu back-winging onto Hakkai's shoulder blew a good whiff of Sanzo's scent his way, and he had to fight the urge to duck. When the priest got _that_ wound up, the bullets were going to fly. Heck, even Goku had backed up and was - whispering to Hakkai?

"I'll… be all right," Hakkai said quietly. "Gen, I put my limiters down before the fight. Could you find-?"

"One little ambush and you lose track of 'em," Sanzo grumbled, ducking his head to search for bits of silver. Hakuryuu took to the air again, cheeping when she found a familiar gleam.

Which was the opening Goku needed to snag Janet and pull her over to Hakkai for a quick, whispered consultation.

"I'll see what I can do," the doc said thoughtfully. Stepped back with a smile and nod, and grabbed Gojyo with a frown. "I need a translation," she said in quiet English. "I _think_ Hakkai just asked if I could find a place for Sanzo to smoke. For medicinal purposes?"

_Well, kind of. He smokes, he doesn't kill people. They stay healthy._ Though it _was_ a little more serious than just taking the edge off Sanzo's temper, according to Hakkai. Gojyo glanced toward O'Neill, relieved to see him arguing in low tones with the Tok'ra as security cleaned up the rest of the ambushers. "No, you heard right. Um. I can explain. Just, it's kind of private." Inwardly, he felt his heart sink. For Hakkai to bring up something the healer _knew_ Sanzo wanted kept quiet- _How much did that chant take out of him?_

"Are you sure?" Janet gave him a dubious look, voice still a bare whisper. "He also asked for… spirits."

_Oh hell. It_ is _that bad._ "If you've got medicinal Scotch, now would be a good time," Gojyo said soberly.

"You're serious."

"Not life or death, yet - but, oh yeah." Gojyo held her gaze, sincere. "Look. Hakkai's _asking_ , healer to healer. Can you help?" He tried not to swallow too obviously. "And can you keep it quiet?"

Janet let out a slow breath. "I'll try." She gave him a rueful grin. "After a day like this, I might just steal a smoke off you."

_Heh. Good thing mononoke-ha's not bad for humans…._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Early Saiyuki canon says Kouryuu was one of the most powerful - if not the most powerful - spellcasters in the Temple. At 13. 
> 
> ...Gunlock apparently retcons that to “Genjyo Sanzo doesn’t know spells that don’t involve the sutra”. Which makes no sense, and I haven’t read that far yet, so I’m ignoring it.


	5. Kung fu fighting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the best tradition of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, SG-1 decides to run and find out. 
> 
> ...Jack's planning to tell Hammond he did not sign up for zombies. Nope. 
> 
> (AKA, Hakkai has duct tape. This may be a mistake.)

"Did the aspirin help?" Janet asked, the rueful sympathy in her face clear evidence she already knew the answer.

"A little… no, not really," Daniel admitted, settling back into the conference room chair. He felt like he'd been run over by a terrorized elephant. _Ow_.

Rubbing his head, the archaeologist glanced at the three-way argument down at the other end of the table; Jack, Jacob, and the general all going at it, with Sam and Teal'c separately white-faced and somber on the sidelines. "What's going on?"

"-Cannibals?" Jack's voice rose, equally disbelieving and disgusted.

"Not all of them," Jacob admitted grudgingly. "But there's a reason humans don't trust youkai. And they shouldn't. Youkai _eat_ people. Though I imagine that little _priest_ didn't mention it-"

"Actually, he did," Daniel put in. "They've all referred to insane youkai and zatarcs eating people." Nudging his glasses up, the archaeologist eyed the Tok'ra. "So do you hate all of Kanzeon's priests, or is Dr. Genjyo a special case because he happens to look like her nephew?"

"Nothing just _happens_ where Kanzeon is involved," Jacob said grimly. "Konzen Douji is _dead_. I don't know what kind of game she's playing with the Asgard, but-" He shut up.

"Huh," Jack said thoughtfully. "Sounds like a pretty important guy. For a clerk."

Two gazes met. Held against each other-

"We need to know," Sam insisted.

"I guess you do." Jacob deflated slightly. "Not Konzen Douji. His pet."

"His _pet?_ " Hammond echoed in disbelief.

"I was putting this together for Dr. Jackson anyway…. This is the first time Konzen really came to our attention. A little over nine centuries ago." Jacob set the holoprojector on the table, and the throne room was back.

With a few differences. A lesser Goa'uld bowed before Kanzeon, holding a chain attached to-

_Goku_ , Daniel thought, and knew the rest of his team was equally stunned. _He looks only twelve, but - that's Goku._

_Only - nine centuries ago? It can't be Goku. Can it?_ "Is there sound?"

"Sure, but it won't do you much good." Jacob touched a control-

Just as the golden-eyed kid in a familiar limiter pulled free in an audible chime of heavy chains, leaping up to grab some of a stunned Konzen's hair. "Wow! It's just like the sun!"

In _Ancient_.

"Let _go_ of me, you little monkey!"

_Konzen spoke Ancient?_ With an effort, Daniel kept his jaw from dropping. Sure, Kanzeon had the sutras, meaning she could probably translate the language. But Konzen was _speaking_ it, fluently as Goa'uld.

"What a charming little creature," Kanzeon mused in Goa'uld, as Konzen tried to detach gold strands and the kid kept finding more ways to cling on. "We'll keep him."

"Ah, my lady…." Jiroshin was visibly sweating. "You can't even keep a houseplant alive."

"Don't be ridiculous. I never said _I_ would keep him." Her grin was pure mischief. "Konzen."

_"What?"_ the blond snapped, looking rather like the losing end of a fight with an octopus.

And apparently that distraction was all the opening the kid needed to climb Konzen like a tree, and latch onto his neck like… well, an orphan monkey. Though the way small teeth nipped at the corner of Konzen's jaw was pure wolf cub, affectionate and wild.

Jack muttered a curse under his breath, obviously expecting the usual Goa'uld reaction to an annoyance. As in violence.

Only Konzen seemed more frozen than angry, violet looking down into gold as if the world had gone suddenly sane-

The holo blinked out.

"We didn't think much of it at the time," Jacob admitted. "What was one more youkai when Kanzeon had thousands? Only for a Queen, she keeps pretty good records of her experiments. And this one didn't seem to have any. It was like he'd just appeared on the planet. And after what you just saw, there were rumors about Konzen… well, honestly, there were always rumors about Konzen. Most of which boiled down to, _don't make him angry_."

"Or else?" Jack prompted.

"Don't know," Jacob shrugged. "There's no hard facts of him going after anyone. Physically, at least. Heck, he was a vegetarian. Never seemed to get angry, either, no matter what kinds of messes his pet got him into. Pretty much just maintained a constant low level of pissed. Like a certain colonel I could mention."

"You imply there were new rumors," Teal'c said levelly, before Jack could snark back.

The Tok'ra looked as if he'd bitten into something sour. "Take it you noticed the gloves?"

"The kote?" Sam wondered. "Isn't that just a style on Shangri-La? Dr. Genjyo wears them-"

"Which I should have warned you about before, but you told me the priest was one of your people, George," Jacob said angrily. "I thought he was just playing a part. What's the universe coming to when one of your men joins up with Kanzeon's damn chanters?" He held up a hand to ward off questions. "We've never been able to find the weapon Kanzeon's made on them, and they're all fanatics who'd rather die than talk. They seem to activate it under cover of a religious chant, and it has various nasty effects on the nervous system. Or did you not _notice_ the man Genjyo grabbed is _catatonic?_ "

Jack glanced at Janet. "I guess now we know what plan B is."

"How many?" Daniel asked quietly, looking at Jacob.

"What?"

"How many didn't talk?"

Jacob shook his head. "For god's sake, what difference does it make? You've got an armed enemy downstairs-"

"Who has, apparently, only used whatever weapon he does have in self-defense," the general said firmly. "I understand your concern. But our guests have been honest about their affiliations, if not always forthcoming. And I have to say I'm inclined to look favorably on _anyone_ who prevented another of my people from being forcibly taken as a host."

"By a Goa'uld they brought here!" Jacob objected.

"No." Janet's voice was as cold as Daniel had ever heard it; chill with the kind of anger that made him want to back up and find a safe place to hide. Preferably on another planet. "I used the reader on a sample from my gloves. All the alleles match DNA of Tok'ra origin. And _don't_ match those of unrelated Goa'uld. The creature we've got confined is a Tok'ra. Mutated, possibly insane, but a Tok'ra."

_Beat_.

A moment's pause; Daniel couldn't put a finger on why it felt too long. Surely it had to be a shock-

_No. He was expecting that._

_Why would he be expecting that if he didn't think it was Gonou?_

"Then something must have happened to him," Jacob said grimly. "He'd never have taken a youkai host."

"He didn't."

Daniel swallowed. He'd have sworn Janet's voice couldn't get any colder.

"Hakkai was human when Gonou took him over," Janet went on. "He was _made_ a youkai by one of Gyokumen Koushu's scientists. So. One of the people supposed to be our _allies_ tried to take me over, and the _cannibalistic monster_ saved me." She looked Jacob up and down, unimpressed. "Guess whose story sounds better right about now?"

"Kanzeon's a System Lord," Jacob said flatly. "She's part of what we fight. Remember?"

"Yet from your own description, she has not been part of the System Lords' battles for longer than many Tau'ri civilizations have existed," Teal'c noted. "Who is Gyokumen Koushu?"

"A Goa'uld who got onto the planet about nine centuries ago," Jacob said after a long moment. "She poached Ni Jianyi into her service - _he's_ one of Kanzeon's spawn, in case you're getting any delusions about what kind of creature she is. And then Koushu ran into Konzen's pet, and the whole situation blew up."

"Take it you mean that literally," Jack noted.

"Pretty much. For some reason the Asgard didn't like the situation, and…." Jacob turned up empty hands. "Kanzeon lost a lot of lesser Goa'uld that day. Konzen included."

"And the youkai?" Sam asked.

"Never heard from again," Jacob shrugged. Looked the general in the eye. "You've got to hold Genjyo here. If we can keep him alive, we can finally figure out-"

"You're lying," Daniel blurted out. _Oh, not a good thing to say…._ But it was so _obvious_. Like nails scraping down a chalkboard. How could Jacob even imagine they were fooled? _Think, think; you can't catch him out on_ that _one, but earlier-_ "You said Konzen died for his pet. Why would the Asgard shoot a _child?_ "

"They didn't." Sam's voice was quiet, with terrible surety. "Selmak did."

Jacob drew himself up, face cold. "There were reasons."

"And we're all dying to hear them," Jack said with mock lightness.

"Sorry," Jacob said, in the level tone that meant he wasn't sorry at all.

"Jacob-" the general began.

"Council business, George. It's not going to happen."

Hammond nodded once. "Then this discussion is over."

"What? George-"

The general pushed a button to signal the guards outside. "Security will escort you to your quarters."

"You're making a mistake," Jacob insisted, as a sober airman entered. "And it's going to be a big one."

"The terms of our alliance with the Tok'ra," General Hammond said flatly, "are for there to be a free and open sharing of information between us, as allies. You've deliberately lied to us about Shangri-La, about the zatarcs, about the sutra, and about your plans for them all. Given you've been pursuing the System Lords for over two thousand years, it may be that Byzantine dealings are endemic to the Tok'ra as they are all the Goa'uld-"

"Hey!"

"-But so long as the Stargate has been open, Earth's survival has been threatened on a yearly, if not _weekly_ , basis. We are _not_ going to be played with, Jacob. _We don't have the time_." He nodded at the airman. "Enjoy a quiet evening, Ambassador."

"This isn't over." Granting Hammond a nod, the Tok'ra turned on his heel and left.

"He's right," Jack said soberly, after the door closed. "If we don't know what Sanzo's using-"

"It's biological," Janet stated.

"Dr. Fraiser?" the general raised a brow.

"That's why the Tok'ra can't find it," the doctor went on. "There's no device to find."

"The alterations in his DNA," Sam realized. "But how-?"

"How, what, I don't know," Janet shrugged. "But his friends - or should I say, his pack - knows what Sanzo can do. And what it costs him." She eyed them all. "Right now Hakkai's gotten about half a bottle of Scotch down him, and last I saw, they were likely to finish it off."

"He's getting him drunk?" Jack said, disbelieving.

"I said he'd had half the bottle. He's definitely _not_ drunk." She took a small cigarette out of a labcoat pocket. "And he and Captain Sha are both getting a good dose of a drug I've never seen before. Sha says it's reasonably harmless to humans, like chocolate. I'll need a full analysis to check that. But my preliminary results indicate that to someone with certain nonhuman genes, this probably has an _interesting_ effect on regulating neural networks. Particularly calcium ion release. Which would fit with Sanzo's blood work, the alcohol, and what Daniel told me about his diet." She eyed the dried herbs, and put it away. "This is just an educated guess so far, but… Goku's little disappearing trick with that staff? Sha says it's energy manipulation. The same kind of thing the limiters hold in check. The kind Sha was afraid they'd block; that's why Hakkai had his _off_. We know that healing and ribbon devices involve heavy use of the neurons. Alcohol stimulates calcium release inside the brain; that's part of what makes it so damaging when people overindulge. It _also_ tends to wipe out certain vitamins from the system… stuff you tend to find in a lot of fermented foodstuffs, whole grains, anything made with yeast, and citrus in general." Janet shook her head. "He knows he's not normal anymore, General. And _they_ know. Hakkai's _treating_ him. I can't blame Sanzo for wanting to get out of here. Essentially, he's a hypoglycemic stuck with people who think sugar's only something you use off-duty."

"You're kidding," Jack said dryly. "Doc. Are you telling me we have a guy who's one hundred percent, bona fide, _knurd?_ "

Sam coughed, stifling a snicker.

Janet blinked. Smiled, even if it was a little wry. "Actually, Colonel, that's just about right. He's at least two drinks short of what it would take to be sober."

"If it was that bad, they could have- No," Daniel stopped himself. "They wouldn't have asked, would they? Because if we're still working with the Tok'ra, we could be the enemy."

"But what's even more interesting? It's not just a weapon," Janet informed them. "Hakkai was bleeding, very badly. Until Sanzo took hold of him. And then…." She shook her head. "I felt… something."

"Like a snake crawling over your foot?" Daniel muttered.

"No. It was warm," Janet said thoughtfully. "Just - a feeling of being safe. And when I got to look at Hakkai's throat, it wasn't bleeding nearly as much as it should have been, from the depth of the wound. I think Sanzo could have handled it even if Hakkai hadn't been able to use the healing device. Though Hakkai didn't want him to; I don't know how close to the edge Sanzo has pushed himself here, but they were all very worried about him." She eyed the archaeologist. "A snake?"

"When he was intimidating Major Rayner," Daniel filled in. "It was as if… a cobra climbed over my foot, looking for a rat. It wasn't interested in biting _me_ , but if I startled it-" He shrugged.

"Only he did bite you," Jack said, low and deadly.

"I don't think he meant to," Daniel objected. _If the Tok'ra alliance goes down, it won't just affect us; the Asgard, the Nox, and the Tollans will get dragged in. We've got to find a way to fix this._ "What did you mean, pack?" he asked, trying to think. "I know the youkai Konzen was looking after acted, well…." He was _not_ going to call the kid a pet. No matter what Selmak thought.

"Hakkai did that whole teeth routine in the infirmary," Jack nodded. "And what Sanzo did back-"

"Is what an alpha wolf would do, when he's reminding the rest of the pack who's in charge," Janet stated. "It's not just about who's the meanest, Colonel. You know how hard it was for Major Carter after Jolinar died. If Cassie's nature shows are right, Sanzo took the shortest route to remind Hakkai that he was still part of the pack. Not an outcast. In short, though I wouldn't put it this way in front of them, Hakkai is very embarrassed…. That wasn't a threat, Colonel. That was, _we love you, and we're not going anywhere_."

"Could explain the animosity," Sam said, half to herself. "Behavioral dissonance."

"Major?" Hammond drummed his fingers lightly on the table. "Given I would like to rescue some amount of cooperation with the Tok'ra, any insights you might have would be useful."

"Well…." Sam turned to Teal'c. "From what I've seen, the Goa'uld have some things in common with an ant nest."

"I believe Major Carter is correct," the Jaffa said after a moment's consideration. "The System Lord is in the position of power, while the Queen serves as a source of new larva to strengthen his Jaffa. But there is a resemblance."

"Looked a lot more snakelike than bug-like to me, last time I checked," Jack objected.

"And youkai aren't wolves, either. Bear with me, sir." Sam had that excited look in her eyes Daniel never got tired of; a silent, sparkling _aha!_ "Now, the thing about human behavior is, it's flexible. We can act like wolves or ants. Wolves when we're in small groups, especially under stress. Ants, when we're in big organizations working toward a common goal."

"So we can act like youkai or Goa'uld?" Jack frowned, and glanced at Daniel.

_Translation time. Don't worry, I see where she's going._ "Behavior is a big part of culture, and culture determines a lot of how you decide who to trust," Daniel picked up the thread. "Do you laugh at the same jokes? Do you cry at funerals, or not? Are you supposed to scream bloody murder during childbirth? Or maybe it's a silent, stoic battle, and if you die, you're honored like a warrior. If you can predict what someone will do, you can trust them - and if they're from the same culture, they're a lot easier to predict. And the best indication of that, is behavior." He wet his lips. "In reference to the Tok'ra - I couldn't say anything about it at the time because I didn't know. My first focus was Egypt, and they had doors. Of sorts. But cultures in which there are no doors, no privacy? Those are groups that _don't_ trust each other. Proper behavior is only enforced by somebody _watching_ you. People from groups like that will lie, cheat, steal, even casually murder, if they think they can get away with it. Which means, any time they're out of sight of the main group. Like Tok'ra are on missions."

The general looked somber. "Dr. Jackson, are you saying…." He couldn't finish.

"I'm saying I _don't know_ , General. Tok'ra aren't human. I could be wrong. But _if_ they were a human social group, they'd have a lot in common with some of the primitive tribes Jared Diamond dealt with in Papua New Guinea. Groups that could not come in contact with other groups without trying to kill them, if they thought they could get away with it." Daniel held up a warning finger. "They respect the High Council. So they won't do anything they think the Council will come down on them for… _if_ they think the Council will get a chance to hear about it."

Silence, as the others absorbed that. "Would explain a lot," Jack admitted. "Damn it, I _like_ Jacob."

"As do I," Hammond said soberly. "However, that does not change the fact that Tok'ra behavior toward the SGC-" He shook his head.

"Pretty much fits that of certain tribe members toward anthropologists investigating them," Daniel said ruefully. "We're outsiders who don't know all the rules, so we can be taken advantage of. Especially in a play for power against another tribe member. And since we're outsiders, if something goes wrong - well, it must be _our_ fault. Because we're not _them_." The archaeologist sighed. "But what Sam is getting at is, youkai can probably act a lot like humans, but from what we're seen already, with two people who _weren't_ youkai to start with? I doubt they can drop the pack behavior enough to act like the Tok'ra expect from _advanced_ races. The Tok'ra _aren't_ going to like them, and they _are_ going to believe the worst of them, at any opportunity. And they'll believe the same of anyone associated with them. Like Kanzeon."

"But she's Goa'uld," Sam objected. "Wouldn't she feel the same way?"

"People keep all kinds of strange pets," Janet pointed out. "Most of us can understand dogs, and cats, and even fish. But there are people out there who think tarantulas and scorpions are the _cutest_ things _ever_. Maybe she's just weird."

"We should talk to her," Daniel realized.

Jack blinked, knocking knuckles against the side of his head as if to jar loose deafening earwax. "Say _what?_ "

* * *

 

"You want to send SG-1 to talk to Kanzeon Bosatsu." Seated across the conference room table, hints of smoke still wafting around him, Sha eyed General Hammond. _Security's pulled back so they can't hear us, nice, but-_ "Do you not like them anymore, or are they just _way_ overdue for another shot of insanity? And why aren't they here to ask me? Heck, why isn't Sanzo?"

"Sanzo is her representative, and I'd prefer a somewhat less biased viewpoint," Hammond answered. "Anyone who calls a System Lord _her Hagness_ likely still has a fairly Earth-based point of view."

"Um. About that-" Sha started, uncomfortable.

"Captain Sha." Hammond gave him a serious look. "I should have done this before, crises or not… you did it, son. You're home." He held out a hand, ready to grip.

_I can't._ "I lost them, General," the han'you said painfully. "I couldn't get to the rest of my people in time, I couldn't save them-"

"I know." The hand was still waiting.

Shaking, Sha took it.

Hammond shook his hand, firmly, eyes shadowed with compassion. "I know it doesn't make the nightmares any easier to bear. But given what we now know… you fought against incredible odds, Captain. All of you. If it were up to me, you'd be up for commendations."

"I hear a _but_ ," Sha muttered, as they let go.

"The fine nuances of the situation on the ground on Shangri-La may be lost on some at the more rarified levels of those cleared to know about the SGC," Hammond admitted dryly. "We've had to deal with two zatarcs here, permanently. Even so, the full extent of the threat, and the lack of options presented to anyone dealing with it without an entire army behind them… well."

Sha winced. "I'm in trouble, sir?"

"Unjust as it is, yes, you would be," Hammond allowed. "If you remained under my command." The general eyed him. "I'm allowed a certain leeway in assigning personnel permanently offworld. It was originally intended to cover those joining the Tok'ra, but there's no reason I can't extend the same courtesies to a liaison to an allied world."

Sha blinked. "…You want to stick Sanzo with me."

"Is he not someone you'd choose to work with, long-term?" the general said bluntly. "I understand you would have had limited options before-"

"No!" Sha said; too quickly, he knew it, but _god_. Stay with Sanzo? Officially? And still help out Earth, god, let it be true…. "I know he's an asshole sometimes, but he's trying to do the right thing. Usually. And he's a damn good shot. And stubborn; god, that's like calling the ocean a little wet, the guy just _will not_ die, and…."

He _wasn't_ going to break down and bawl like a baby. Not in front of the general. Even if finally having _duty_ and _clan_ pulling the same way was a relief so sharp, it cut like diamond.

"We'll get the paperwork started, then." Hammond leaned back in his chair. "Kanzeon?"

"Thinking, sir." The han'you stopped himself from reaching for his pack of cards; no monkey to tease with a shuffle, right now. Instead, he concentrated on what he'd seen, what he'd felt, and what his gut said about the situation besides _you're all nuts_. "If you really want to do this, we've got to head to Chang'an. We _could_ get in contact with her at one of the other temples - well, Sanzo could, anyway - but if you want to do this with all the bells and whistles, they ought to go through the Sanbutsushin."

"That wasn't what I asked."

"Yeah, just give me a minute." Sha closed his eyes, picturing Kanzeon's grin as Goku went limp in his arms, shiny new limiter in place, while Hakkai worked frantically on Sanzo's injuries. It wasn't a _safe_ grin. It was, in fact, kind of like a certain roadrunner's beaky smile, before a very unlucky coyote stepped right into his own carefully-laid trap.

But there was no malice in it.

"I think they'd be safe," Sha stated, looking at the general. "Well, from Kanzeon; Shangri-La's not _safe_. But if she wanted to do mean, nasty things to people just because they were from Earth, she's had plenty of chances already."

"True," Hammond allowed. "But your teams were not SG-1."

The miracle-workers. The System Lord killers. Yeah, most Goa'uld would gladly give up half an army to have them at their nonexistent mercy. "Sanzo gave his word," Sha said bluntly. "I'd be surprised as hell if she broke it."

"On that, even the Tok'ra seem to agree," Hammond mused. "Which is why SG-1 is currently taking advantage of Jacob's offer to acquire Koryo." He eyed the han'you. "I'd prefer to have you all on your way before Jacob has an opportunity to report to the High Council. When is local dawn on Shangri-La?"

* * *

 

_They're leaving; they're leaving, and I'm going to miss it…._ Janet skidded into the observation room just beside the general, feeling the Stargate's vibrations despite the dampers the SGC had installed over the years. _Five chevrons locked; without a key, we can only get to six from Shangri-La's address… what's Sanzo doing?_

The window was high enough that she could see the blond's hands pressed together as if in prayer; head slightly bowed, breath visibly slower to a doctor's eye.

_Self-induced trance?_ Janet wondered. _If the Tok'ra are right, and other priests have to chant to pull it off - damn, he must be good…._

Light.

Her jaw dropped, the room falling silent as the sutra rose off Sanzo's shoulders, fluttering in an uncanny wind. Light bright as noon sky washed clean the 'Gateroom's shadows, waking an eerie silver glow from the ancient ring-

_"Chevron seven!"_

The 'Gate whooshed open.

Janet listened to the general send them all off with half an ear, watching them walk into the silvery event horizon. Sanzo was last, sutra still glowing….

The moment he stepped through, the wormhole vanished.

"Major Carter thought that might happen," the general said to her look of alarm. "Given what we know about the 'key' used last time, the Shangri-La DHD will remain unlocked until the 'Gate closes normally. But from an outside source, whatever signal is sent has to be continuous to maintain the link." He frowned. "SG-1 had better come back with valuable information, or the Joint Chiefs will have some choice words about letting that sutra walk out of here."

"Speaking as a doctor, sir, I'm just as glad you did." Tapping her folders together, Janet handed over her preliminary findings.

Brow raised, Hammond read. Paused. Reread, more slowly. Looked up. "You're sure?"

"As sure as I can be, given our _primitive_ technology," Janet said dryly. "Goku's not a variant human. I'd go so far as to say Goku's not human at all."

Hammond's finger hovered over a sentence. "You believe he's the source DNA of the youkai alterations."

"His species, at least. Whatever that might be," Janet agreed. "The youkai, and what Koumyou used on Sanzo. Goku matches both of them." She grinned sardonically. "I'd guess the cellular reader really is old technology. Kanzeon certainly knows how to beat it. To the reader, Sanzo's almost entirely human. Our analysis? He's got at least as much alien DNA as Captain Sha. Possibly as much as Hakkai." She gave the general her own raised brow. "But what's really interesting? Not only are youkai and Sanzo genetically compatible with humans… they might be compatible with Goku, too."

"Doctor?"

"Shangri-La is protected. Like Cimmeria," Janet pointed out. "And as Major Carter bluntly put it, Cimmeria's a species refuge. For humans." She paused. "Sir, I just had time to get a little of this to the major before she left… we think Shangri-La could be, well, a captive breeding program."

That rocked the general back on his heels. "But you say youkai aren't Goku's species."

"Maybe there aren't that many left of Goku's species," Janet said bluntly. "Check out some species rescue programs on Earth. American Chestnut's a good example; they crossbreed it with Asian, trying to breed in blight resistance, then try and breed back to keep as much of the original species as possible. Mostly original is better than an entire species extinct."

"Which leaves the question of why the Asgard would leave such a project in the hands of the Goa'uld," Hammond pointed out.

_That's what I told Sam_ , Janet thought wryly. "We came up with two possibilities. First - cultural. The Asgard may be an advanced species, but we've never seen anything in their tech that uses genetic manipulation." She cleared her throat. "Definitely not on the level someone like Nirrti does. And like other Goa'uld must have done in the past, to make Jaffa to begin with."

"If the human race ever meets the System Lord who altered Teal'c's people to be dependent on larvae, I think I might be persuaded to turn the colonel loose with vacation time and explosives," Hammond agreed dryly. "And second?"

"Location, location, location." Janet shrugged. "The Tok'ra thought the kid _appeared_. What if he didn't? What if he was just _found?_ "

"Survivors," Hammond mused.

"And if Kanzeon had possession of the planet before the Treaty went into effect, the Asgard would have had to make a hostile move to get it back," Janet nodded. "And we know they don't want to do that. It'd make more sense to strike an individual deal with Kanzeon. _If_ she could be trusted. Given that even the Tok'ra swear she's holding up her end, under _extreme_ provocation…." The doctor spread empty hands. "But these are just guesses."

"We've made it this far based a great deal on our people's informed guesswork," Hammond acknowledged. Frowned, examining the situation from all angles. "If you're right, SG-1 could be walking into a very delicate situation."

_Aren't they always?_ Janet straightened her shoulders, giving the general her best no-nonsense look of confidence. "If the Tok'ra can't wreck it, I doubt our people will."

"That was before the Tok'ra knew we had a scroll guardian in our grasp, and let him walk away," Hammond stated. "Security says Gonou is talking. Well, raving, for the most part…."

"So you think he is partly lucid." Janet swallowed a sudden lump of unease.

The general nodded. "So far, Jacob _appears_ to believe he's entirely insane."

"But while we can keep Harris here-" _poor bastard, even an NID plant doesn't deserve this,_ "-holding Selmak when he wants to report in is another matter," Janet realized. "And once the High Council knows, they can use a communicator to reach any agents they have on the planet. While we _can't_ talk to SG-1." No wonder the general looked grim. And yet…. "Okay, sir. Just what have you got up your sleeve?"

Hammond's smile had a calculating edge Janet had seen when Nirrti's fellow System Lords hauled her away to punishment. "Only a few holy demon-slayers…."

* * *

 

Pretty world, Daniel thought desperately, looking at the dawn-lit sky, the storm-blown trees, the mountains in the distance. Any direction but down. It didn't help. He could still smell… _that_.

"Thought you said the locals cremate their dead," Jack said levelly, toeing a bit of spent brass with a look of focused interest.

"They do," Gojyo stated, stepping around bodies as Hakuryuu launched off Hakkai's arm. "This isn't good."

"No, really?"

"The villagers might have a good reason not to come here," Sanzo stated, violet scanning their surroundings. You'd think he didn't even _see_ the bodies, if not for the fact that his feet avoided them completely. "We missed a few on our way out."

"Define _few_ ," Jack said dryly.

"Four. Or five."

"And that's enough to pin down a whole village?" Sam said skeptically.

"They are youkai, Major Carter," Teal'c noted. "If the villagers are not trained warriors, it would indeed be a daunting force."

White wings circled, and Hakkai glanced at Sanzo. "They're not here."

"Just because your dragon doesn't see an ambush-" Jack started.

"Hakuryuu doesn't see them. Two youkai and a han'you don't hear them. And Goku doesn't smell them. They're not here." A last flick of violet eyes about their surroundings, and Sanzo stalked off westward, toward what looked like an old footpath. "Let's go."

Jack's eyes narrowed, but he waved them forward, catching up with Sanzo's team.

_Oh, this is going to be messy_ , Daniel realized. Yes, the general had _said_ they were going to pay attention to their local experts' advice, but when they were in the field, it was Jack who decided which way they went. Unless of course there were key ruins Daniel had to examine, or people he had to talk to, or scientific samples Sam had to take… and, well, even then, it was Jack who decided when they had to stop studying and _go_.

Sanzo hadn't asked. Hadn't even consulted. Sanzo just _moved_ , and expected everyone else to follow.

_Very, very messy_ , Daniel thought guiltily. Particularly because his first impulse hadn't been to support Jack. It'd been to follow, because wherever Sanzo was going was _away_ from the bodies.

Jack wasn't going to forget that. He _knew_ it.

The last scent of decaying flesh fell behind them, and Jack moved up to point besides white robes. "You know, it wouldn't kill you to throw on some cammo."

"Says you." Violet narrowed, darkly amused. "Colonel, youkai vision's a hell of a lot better than human, and most humans aren't going to try and kill a priest. If I'm going to get shot, it's not going to be by accident."

"Yeah. A sniper could put a real damper on this party."

The priest almost smirked. "It's been tried."

"Why does that not surprise me?" the colonel said dryly. "So what have you got in your bag of tricks that we don't know about?"

"Who says I've got anything?" Sanzo lit a cigarette, never breaking stride. "Maybe I have a death wish. Stick around with these three long enough, the quiet gets tempting."

Hakkai laughed; it raised prickles on Daniel's neck. "You'd rather shoot us all first," the healer said cheerfully.

"Shoot _at_ us, at least." Gojyo rolled his eyes. "Think the Sanbutsushin take bets on whether or not he leaves the hotel without bullet holes?"

"Hey, they're not _all_ Sanzo's fault!" Goku said indignantly, shorter legs keeping up with no apparent extra effort. "How was he supposed to know those assassins were good enough to dodge?"

Sanzo snorted, smoke wafting behind him. "Damned with faint praise, monkey…."

Daniel _would_ have commented on that, at length, but it was taking all his breath to keep up. Sanzo's foursome had settled into a deceptively steady pace that ate up the ground as fast as Jack's forced marches, and he'd bet of them all, only Teal'c wasn't feeling the strain.

"If we're going to hit trouble down the road," Jack said, husbanding his breath, "we might want to _stroll_ a while."

That got blinks, and a sudden slowing of the pace. "Sorry about that," Gojyo shrugged. "We don't usually travel with other humans. And Sanzo's used to keeping up."

"For how long?" Sam muttered.

"All day. All night. And the next day," Sanzo said bluntly. "If you're running from a horde, you don't have time to sleep. Or slow down. So show me what pace your people _can_ keep, Colonel. Because there are youkai zatarcs out there, and if Gyokumen Kushu's plans didn't call them off elsewhere, they're probably hanging out near the village. In case they get _hungry_."

"Not in front of the kid," Jack said in a low tone.

"Who's a kid?" Goku said indignantly. "Sheesh! You think I don't know what youkai do when they go crazy?"

"Or even, sometimes, when they haven't," Hakkai observed, tone frighteningly light. "I find it fortunate to be among companions with such good taste, don't you?"

"Ooo, not going there," Gojyo shook his head. "Maybe I should cook next time."

Hakkai cleared his throat. "Ah, Gojyo, I don't think…."

"Ew! Ew ew ew! Don't let him, Sanzo! I don't wanna starve!"

_"Quiet." Thwack. Thwack._

"I _know_ two of you had SGC basic training, even if the Iron Friar over there got the shorthand version." Jack rolled his eyes. "So do _any_ of you remember that they covered _silence?_ "

_"Nyoi-bo!"_

_Thwack._

"Ooogh…."

"Sir!" Sam leapt to keep Jack upright. And succeeded. Mostly.

"Goku," Sanzo said, with remarkable calm for someone who'd just seen his ward render a Black Ops trained colonel semiconscious, "what'd I say about hitting humans in the head?"

Gold-tipped staff in hand, Goku shifted from foot to foot. "Umm… don't do it unless you're serious?" That quick, indignation flushed his face red. "But he called you a-"

"Think there might be a few problems in your Tok'ra buddies' translation program," Gojyo put in, before Goku could finish.

"So it would seem," Teal'c said thoughtfully.

_Is he-?_ Daniel eyed the Jaffa's carefully bland expression. Too bland. _Yep. He's laughing._

Sanzo sighed, and stuck out a fist. "Jan, ken-"

_"Pon!"_ four voices called at once.

"Aw, no fair!" Goku griped, hand in the classic scissors shape, while the other three held rock.

"You hit, you carry," Gojyo shrugged. "Um… we can carry him, right Hakkai?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes," the healer nodded, hand slightly glowing as he took it away from Jack's head. "I doubt you'll aggravate any preexisting damage."

"Preexisting?" Sam sputtered. "And there's no way you can carry the Colonel-"

Rolling his eyes, Goku hefted Jack over his shoulder. Easily.

Daniel couldn't help himself. Strength was one thing, but the difference in height- "Um, if you do that, he's going to…."

Which was about when Hakkai brought out the duct tape.

_…When Jack gets loose, we are so,_ so _dead._

* * *

 

"When this mission is over," Colonel O'Neill gritted out, eyeing duct tape with a look that should have incinerated it, "we need to have a little _talk_ about the chain of command in the field."

Healing the last of the bump on the man's head, Hakkai listened, catching the regal tones that meant Sanzo was still in full regalia for the village elders. Crown and all. Which had served the dual purpose of impressing the locals and thoroughly distracting Dr. Jackson… who was currently being guarded by Major Carter and Teal'c, as Goku and Gojyo swept the village for any concealed youkai. Leaving Hakkai alone with the colonel behind the inn they'd last stayed at. How wonderfully _thoughtful_ of Sanzo. "Well, Colonel… I thought we might have a little talk right _now_. About youkai, and clans, and exactly who _is_ in charge of this mission." The healer smiled. The day was warm, the sun was shining, and that endless pit of guilt and madness was finally _gone_. Which meant that the desire to remove his limiters and shred O'Neill's uniform and skin with his claws - just a _little_ , not nearly enough to kill - was purely his own. How comforting.

_Gently, gently_ , the healer told himself. _After all, the zatarcs are still out there. Even cranky as he may currently be, Sanzo's not cruel enough to kill them all and leave none for the rest of us._ "First - I told you, Goku's not harmless. He's certainly not a child, even if he is young. As far as Shangri-La is concerned, he is a youkai warrior, and he has every right to be on the battlefield. _Especially_ when his clan leader is at risk."

O'Neill's eyes narrowed. "Dr. Genjyo."

"Genjyo Sanzo," Hakkai corrected him. "He's been Sanzo since the day Koumyou passed on the title. He'll be Sanzo until he dies. Which I doubt will be anytime soon; he's stubborn enough to outlive all of us." Another smile. "Second - Gojyo is ours. Leave him alone."

That earned him a darker look, if a wary one. " _Joseph Sha_ is a captain of the SGC."

"Joseph Sha was abandoned, and perished," Hakkai said simply. "It took a while - he held on to being human so _very_ long - but between myself and Dokugakuji… well. Instincts are so incredibly interesting, don't you think?" Gojyo's, and his own. Months in the same cell had anchored him to the man; waking _mine_ and _protect_ and _trust_.

Instincts that weren't human. Instincts he'd despised, with every fiber of his soul, the instincts of the creatures that had violated Kanan….

And yet, those same, awful instincts let him _fight_ the dark well of Gonou inside him, and try to live. When he'd realized _that_ … he'd let them come.

_No_ , Hakkai thought. _Not just let._

Between losing his body and mind, and losing his humanity… the choice wasn't hard. Just agonizing. Focus on Gojyo; his scent, his laughter, his shifting body language as Dokugakuji literally beat into the man what it meant to be youkai. Let himself touch, and hold, and grip skin with teeth.

He'd hated being youkai, yes. But he'd hated Gonou _more_.

Now Hakkai focused on O'Neill, and gave a silken shrug. "Sha Gojyo _belongs_ to Sanzo's clan. As I do, and Goku does. You wouldn't let someone shatter your team, would you? No, I thought not. So. Leave us alone." He smiled slightly. "After all, I'd hate to have to rob Sanzo of an opportunity to dispense a moral lesson on the virtues of respecting the bonds of obligation and duty."

O'Neill gave him a long, wary look. "…He's right. No way in hell are you _innocent_."

"I really didn't want to kill our neighbors," Hakkai said mildly. "But the Centipede Clan… well. I've heard _rumors_ that some survived." Not changing his expression, he cut the colonel's tape. "People know that the servants of other gods do not come to Shangri-La without Kanzeon's consent. Which is, I think, one reason the Tok'ra have managed to pass unnoticed this long. But do try to remember that you're travelers from a distant land, making a pilgrimage to the Temple of the Setting Sun? Some of the local monks can be rather stiff about letting outsiders past their walls."

"Village, not monastery," O'Neill pointed out, eyeing the buildings around them as he rubbed tape-chafed wrists.

"Ah, but you should _practice_." Hakkai granted him another smile. From the spike of adrenaline in his scent, the colonel did not appreciate it. "Sanzo was very, _very_ polite on your world. We all were; well, Goku and Gojyo tried, at least. But that's only proper. On Earth, we were guests. And a guest should always strive to be civil and courteous. Don't you think?"

The colonel stood, with the sort of relaxed calm Hakkai knew was one breath away from controlled violence. "You are absolutely, one hundred percent, homicidally insane, aren't you?"

"Ah, Colonel," Hakkai laughed sadly. "You haven't met the _enemy_ yet." Bowing modestly, he called Hakuryuu down from her over-watch with mind and a raised wrist, and headed for Sanzo's voice.

"So the village of Takei is gone?" Sanzo barely glanced Hakkai's way as they approached, but a brow lifted in silent question.

Hakkai gave a minute shrug, knowing Sanzo would read it in his aura. _He'll behave. For now._

"So it seems," Elder Iro said bluntly, gnarled hands clasped on his walking stick. Around the shops and residences lining the one road through town, villagers lingered, trying not to look as if they were eavesdropping. "As we feared you and your companions were, revered Sanzo."

"We were unavoidably detained," the priest said dryly. "No bodies?"

"Not according to Chokki, no," the elder nodded. "Blood aplenty, and fresh, but none of the dead to be seen." A wry, wrinkled smile. "Not that he stayed long, I'm sure."

"If all I had was a woodcutter's axe? I wouldn't stick around either," Gojyo shrugged.

"So this was yesterday?" Major Carter asked, troubled. "And these youkai haven't attacked here?"

"Not yet," Iro said grimly. "We've posted a watch, but-" One hand spread, empty.

"It'll be okay!" Goku smiled at the man, ready for action. "We'll find 'em."

The elder eyed the young youkai, obviously trying not to shake his head. "I'm certain your companions have confidence in the piety and purity of your faith-"

Hakkai tried not to laugh, as Hakuryuu stifled a chortled "Kyuu!" in his shoulder. Gojyo was less successful, struck by a sudden coughing fit. Even Goku was a little red.

"Power of faith, nothing," Sanzo snorted. " _Stopping_ power…."

"If these are survivors from those who attacked before, Elder Iro, they've been compelled to ambush us," Hakkai put in. "So long as we pass through your village quickly, we should draw them away."

Sanzo caught the emphasis on _quickly_ , of course. "Supplies?" he murmured.

Well, there were a _few_ things they could use, but- Hakkai snatched the card tossed at him by pure reflex. "Get what you need," the priest said bluntly. "Come on, monkey."

"But Sanzo-"

"No."

"I just wanna-"

"No."

"But I'm _hungry!_ "

"You can eat while we walk. Later. _No_."

"And they're going to?" O'Neill inquired dryly.

"Check the village for anything Hakuryuu might have missed," Gojyo said frankly, falling in with Hakkai and the rest of SG-1 as the healer headed for the local apothecary's shop. "Some youkai aren't any better at sneaking than humans, but some _are_. They could have snuck in. They could be hiding out with a limiter; even zatarcs will use a limiter to blend if they've been ordered to. Or they might be using an illusion. Heck, depending on how powerful the bunch out there currently is, one could have teleported in."

Ah, yes. _That_ stopped them cold. "Did you say, teleported?" Dr. Jackson asked carefully.

"Some youkai are capable of that," Hakkai nodded. "It's not a common skill; none of us have developed that ability. And most youkai that powerful weren't caught by zatarc programming. But a few were." And of those who hadn't been caught, well… some followed Kougaiji. Heart and soul.

_"Teleported?"_ Major Carter repeated in disbelief. "The amount of power it would take to physically displace a person, without even creating a wormhole-"

"Like Hakkai said, we don't know how it works," Gojyo answered, keeping to a steady amble. "Just trust me, it does."

"How does the village defend against such abilities?" Teal'c inquired.

Their silence, Hakkai reflected, was an answer all its own.

But their guests had already proven remarkably capable of missing the obvious, so Gojyo sighed, and shrugged. "They don't. They can't. Some of the temples have… methods that work. Most of the time. Outside of that - well, most youkai who can teleport need some time to set it up. And they usually can't take anyone with them."

Kougaiji being a rare exception, Hakkai knew.

"Makes me wonder, though," O'Neill put in. "If you've got even one assassin who can get in anywhere, gunman or not - why are any of you still alive?"

"'Cause Sanzo's a paranoid bastard," Gojyo grinned, "and we are just that good."

"And you're counting on Hakuryuu to tell you if Sanzo's in trouble?" Daniel asked.

"Heck, I'm counting on the _gunshots_ to tell us that…."

_For the SGC's finest team, they are remarkably distractible_ , Hakkai thought, amused, as he slipped inside the apothecary's shop. _Then again, Gojyo_ is _very distracting._

And he hadn't quite managed to escape unnoticed. Major Carter was only a few steps behind, looking wide-eyed at neatly labeled bottles and boxes of pills, cigarettes, and various ointments and oddities. And coming up short, faced with the smiling young girl who was apprenticed to the owner. "Is this where we can find limiters?"

_…Oh, dear._

"Out!" The graying apothecary stood up from her mortar and pestle, one arm out to shield her teenage apprentice. "I run a respectable shop, and I won't have murderous youkai scum inside these walls-"

"Honored Grandmother," Hakkai said humbly, "my travelling companion, Carter-san, is a young, innocent pilgrim from a far land, as you can well see. She was requested by her lord to acquire such a thing as a… curiosity, to present to the court." Still smiling, he rolled his eyes subtly, inviting the old lady to recall all the various salacious rumors about foreign courts; on this planet, and elsewhere. "Forgive us the awkwardness. We only recently learned of the task she and her companions had been set, and we had not yet determined the most proper way to assist them in fulfilling their duty without violating Right Conduct."

"He's right; the fault is entirely mine," Major Carter said quickly, copying his bow. "We are strangers here, and still amazed by a land so full of wonders. This shop is…." She spread her hands, obviously searching for words. "Something I never expected to see."

Well, that was honest, if misleading. Enough to calm the apothecary, somewhat. "Your home must be far away, indeed, young lady. I don't know your liege lord, but what he expects-!" She shook her head, graying bun pinned too tight to shift, then gave the major a wry smile. "Then again, if it is that far, he may not know the difference, hmm?"

"I wouldn't have any idea what you're talking about, Honored Grandmother," Major Carter said virtuously. With, gods bless her, just the right knowing wink.

Hakkai hid his relieved sigh behind his hand, and glanced between them both with a smile. "No, Carter-san. This is where we will be able to account for one of your more _proper_ tasks. Dr. Fraiser should be very interested in some of this establishment's medicines…."

Settling in to repair as much goodwill as possible, Hakkai hoped Sanzo cleared the village _quickly_.

* * *

 

"So let me get this straight," Jack said skeptically, keeping pace with the linguist turned priest as they headed down the road toward the nearest monastery. Might be galling that their local help was _moseying_ , but at least his knees could keep up. "You've got youkai who can summon weapons out of thin air. Youkai who can throw fireballs. Youkai who can turn into _giant man-eating spiders_ -"

"And youkai-eating," Hakkai agreed, with that same unnerving smile. "My, that was gruesome."

"-Youkai who can teleport. Youkai who can _control the weather_ -"

"Mostly in a localized area," Gojyo put in. "Nothing like seeing a tornado aimed straight at you to ruin your whole day."

"-How the _hell_ are any of you still alive?"

"Most of 'em aren't that tough," Goku shrugged. "And we don't stay put too long. Harder to hit a moving target, right, Sanzo?"

"Part of it's mental," the blond said bluntly. "Getting youkai aimed one direction is like herding cats. Zatarc programming makes that easier, but it makes fanatics. And fanatics don't plan. There's a difference between attacking like a pride of lions and working as a _team_."

"I get the guys in mid-range," Gojyo stated. "Goku takes those close in. Hakkai keeps out most of the energy attacks, and Sanzo picks off whoever's casting them. We know what we're going to do, and when we're going to do it."

A major advantage for any team. Still….

"But you don't know what happened to the bodies in Takei," Daniel said sadly.

"There are, unfortunately, a number of possibilities," Hakkai admitted.

"Cannibalism," Jack said flatly.

"That _is_ one, yes. There are also certain… devices, that require large amounts of various bodily fluids to function."

Carter winced, disgusted. "Who would design something like that?"

"Ni," Gojyo bit out. "Sick son of a bitch."

"Which leads to another possibility," Hakkai pointed out. "They might not be dead."

"Yet," Sanzo said grimly. "We go _around_ Takei, not through. If there are survivors, we'll find them, or they'll make it back to Aomura on their own."

"Deserted village, good spot for an ambush," Jack agreed. _If, huh? You're not looking for survivors._ "So, if they are alive, and Ni has them-"

"Then they're miles away by now, and we can't help them. Not unless we find another of his labs," Sanzo said bluntly.

"Slaughtered, or experimental subjects," Carter said queasily. "Are there any other options?"

"Slaves. Though if everybody's gone, that's not likely," Gojyo said practically. "Maybe a kind of bargaining chip between clans - though we should have heard something if two clans this strong were feuding. Bodies for a zombie uprising-"

"We're out-of-towners," Jack said dryly. "Not idiots."

"Can't blame a man for trying."

Uh-huh. Sure. "Speaking of blame," Jack stated, not even pretending to be casual, "I'd be interested in knowing _exactly_ what the terms of Hakkai's parole are."

"Jack!" Daniel hissed at him.

"Oh, I don't mind," Hakkai assured the archaeologist. "After all, I'm not on parole anymore. Though certain authorities would prefer it if I were reporting my location, just in case."

"Hand Gyokumen Koushu our whereabouts, just for the taking?" Sanzo smirked. "I don't _think_ so."

"And since Gonou's been removed, there's no reason to worry," Carter shrugged. "Right, sir?" She eyed him, suddenly uneasy. "Sir?"

_Damn. Need to work on my poker face._

Sanzo didn't look at either of them. "If you've got a problem with my people, Colonel, I'd like to hear it. Now."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Oh, where to _begin?_ "

"He thinks I'm a homicidal maniac," Hakkai said easily.

"Jack!" Daniel exclaimed, exasperated.

Great. _Just_ great. He _had_ been planning to bring that up, yes - but later. When he could catch a night watch with the blond idiot. _Not_ in front of his shocked 2IC and linguist, not to mention Hakkai's own soon to be furious friends….

Who - didn't look that furious. Didn't even look upset.

Why did that _not_ give him a warm and fuzzy feeling?

"Colonel," Sanzo said levelly, "I can assure you all Hakkai's acts of homicide are planned, premeditated, and calculated. Nothing _maniac_ about them."

Jack _stared_ at the man.

"What, you thought Gonou killed his way through a thousand angry youkai in a human body on his own?" Gojyo said wryly. "Believe me, when it comes down to knives in the dark? Tok'ra aren't that bright."

"And now they all stink scared again," Goku grumbled. "What's _with_ you guys? Hakkai's really nice!" Knuckles cracked. "I ought to-"

"Quiet."

And something in the tone of _that_ made all Jack's command instincts sit up and take notice.

_Well, what do you know? They all shut up._

With no good reason he could see, or smell, or anything. Just another patch of road… though the sudden terraced greenness beyond the hedgerow was a field of some kind of grain, guaranteed. Just Sanzo, standing perfectly still, eyes half-closed like- Jack frowned, and motioned at Teal'c. _What do you hear?_

The Jaffa shook his head.

Teal'c's hearing was better than human, Jack knew that. And youkai hearing was apparently at least that good… yet from the glimpses of the rest of Sanzo's people, they were waiting for _him_ to move.

_What the hell does he hear that we can't?_

"From the look of those fields, the village isn't far," Daniel said in an undertone.

"It's not," Sanzo said darkly, focusing back on where they were. "Let's get off the road."

Funny as those sandals looked, the blond never seemed to set a foot wrong. Goku was on point, but it was Sanzo nodding, or flicking fingers, to guide them all down barely visible paths of raised earth through the wet fields. In utter, foreign _silence_.

_Potential ambush. Here. Close,_ Jack deduced. _What the hell do they_ know _that we don't?_

Could be any number of things, he knew. Hell, it could be some local bird hiding instead of singing. That was the problem with going through the 'Gate; you never got to _learn_ a place, find the rhythms of what was life going right or wrong. Which was fine if all you were going to do was run into a firefight, or try a meet 'n greet - but absolutely lousy if you were walking into a low-intensity guerilla war.

_Delta Force_ , Jack thought, resigned. _Or some CIA field guys. Maybe FBI, or DEA. Somebody who knows what people go through in deep cover, that's who we need a consult from. We bought the whole "survivors straggling home against incredible odds" story, and we missed what they made themselves_ getting _home_.

Which was, now that they'd buckled down and gotten serious, something truly hair-raising. Sanzo might as well not be wearing white at all; he was just a ghost, soundless on a trail even Daniel couldn't help rustling weeds on.

_Village_ , Jack thought, spotting buildings through a faint mist. A little poorer, a little more ramshackle than those in Aomura, but no visible ruins. _If there's going to be an ambush-_

They were stopped. And Sanzo folded his hands together, eyes closed.

_Okay. That's taking the priest thing too far-_

Hakkai's voice was a low hiss. _"Be. Silent."_

Minutes passed. Jack swore he could feel individual strands of hair going gray. _Come on, either there's going to be an ambush or there's not, stop standing there not doing anything-_

Mist. Emptiness. The dull boredom of a long, unrewarding watch.

_Not_ his.

Suddenly alert, Jack eyed Sanzo again. Ritualized pose, check. Still expression, check. Slow, regular breaths, like a guy in a hypnotic trance….

_Like before he opened the 'Gate. Holy Hannah. He's_ covering _us. Somehow._

Glancing at his team, Jack caught the moment Carter figured it out, jaw dropping open wide enough to catch one of the local gnats. Daniel was already staring, before shaking his head and turning his attention back to whatever might be waiting out there. And Teal'c-

Jack frowned, and waved his hand in front of glassy brown eyes. Teal'c started, one hairless brow bouncing up before his usual stoic calm kicked in.

"We clear?" Gojyo said, barely audible.

Violet eyes opened, and Sanzo glared.

"Right, stupid question… well?"

"Solid ground," the blond growled, and eyed Goku.

The kid jerked his head slightly north of where they'd been headed. Past a muddy, just-dug field, a tall, rickety-looking structure rose from a small hill; probably a spot for kids to hang out and watch for fires or marauding birds, if Jack recalled Daniel's lectures on agrarian societies right. "That way. Should be easy!"

Sanzo gave him a _look_.  

"…Oh." Goku frowned, and glanced at SG-1. "They can make it. It'll just be a little… close."

"We're going to have to run for it?" Daniel put in, obviously not happy about the situation.

_Not nearly as unhappy as I am_ , Jack thought darkly. "They're out there, huh? How do you know?"

"Colonel-" Hakkai started.

"No." Jack bit it out. _Quietly_. "I am not running my people _into_ an ambush without better intel than you looking spooky. Period."

"Can't you just trust us?" Gojyo tried, smiling.

"Would you?" Sanzo said dryly. "Colonel. They're coming. They're distracted right now, but they can read maps just like we can, and by now they've got a good idea we're not on the road. They are _going_ to ambush us. I'm not fighting in mud if I can help it." His stance shifted, obviously tensing and loosing muscles in preparation for an all-out sprint. "You want answers, they're going to have to wait until the zatarcs are dead. One. _Two_ -"

"Hell," Jack breathed, and joined the mad dash after Goku.

_Son of a bitch, the priest can fly._

Well, not really. But the robes Jack would have sworn should have brought anybody down to earth with a thump didn't slow Sanzo down at _all_.

_How the hell does he still think he's anywhere_ near _human?_

One advantage of taking the field with Teal'c; his team was used to keeping up with better-than-human speed in short sprints. Usually, back through the 'Gate. They were going to _pay_ for this later-

Goku'd outpaced them all, dashing ahead to the rise, stopping just short of the bamboo watchtower to turn and seize his bo out of empty air. And the look on his face, as his nose wrinkled… and the odd, squelching _sounds_ behind them….

_Ah, hell._

Jack turned and fired in one motion, absently wondering how the hell anybody had been able to breathe, dug into mud like that-

And flesh blew away and it was still _coming_ , jaws gaping, hands reaching, wearing muddy, bloody remnants of a farmwife's neat dark dress with blind blue eyes….

As more cold hands seized him, Jack realized it wasn't alone.

_"Duck!"_

Gojyo's shakujou sliced him free, dead fingers still clenched tight. Teal'c's staff weapon opened up like thunder, and Carter's P-90 snapped off shots, while Daniel dragged him back onto his feet-

_"Zombie uprising?"_ Jack snarled, kicking loose a severed hand as he made it up onto the hill. _Behind_ Hakkai's glowing shield; homicidal, sure, but he wasn't _crazy_.

There was something very disturbing about that thought, and Jack meant to chase it down. Later.

The redhead did not look one bit put out, bladed chain still slicing, grin wide enough to swallow his ears. "I tried to tell you!"

"They're - they're dead!" Carter stuttered; pale as a ghost, but still gamely firing.

"Yeah! So stop wasting your ammo," Gojyo got out between swings. "Believe me, they're not feeling it."

"So what do we _do?_ " Daniel asked, pointedly glancing where Teal'c was ducking out from behind protective energies to blast away the closest bodies. Goku was flanking him, grinning in a way no kid on the battlefield should grin, staff thumping pieces that kept crawling closer.

"Dunno, but this is where I'd call in an air strike-" Jack started.

Stopped himself. Eyed Sanzo. Who was standing, chanting under his breath, the scripture on his shoulders rising and glowing in a way that did _not_ bode well for any poor, innocent colonel who wanted to keep a scrap of sanity.

_General, I think I'm going to be able to write that report you wanted…._

Violet eyes blazed open, and Sanzo flung out a hand toward their enemies. _"Makai Tenjyo!"_

Darkness seared Jack's vision, whipping with green and white strips of something that was just _pretending_ to be a scroll, reaching out to ignite every last crawling piece of dead flesh.

_…If I live that long._

Still glowing faintly, the scripture settled back on Sanzo's shoulders, rustling in a way that reminded Jack of a well-fed lion. The priest wavered a little, eyes suddenly tired; Hakkai caught him, shield vanishing.

Ash blew in the wind, and the bodies were gone.

_"Kyuu!"_

And the revolver snapped up, two shots-

Air rippling, two more corpses fell into the mud.

_Youkai. Head shots. Dead center._ Jack swallowed, chilled, as Hakuryuu circled back to Hakkai's shoulder. "You could have mentioned we were the bait."

"What?" Goku scowled at Jack, fingers already starting to curl. "You think Sanzo would-"

"Sure he would, if he had to," Gojyo said matter-of-factly. "But he didn't. We weren't bait, Colonel. We were just here." The redhead nodded at the sutra. "That's what they're after. Us ending up dead in the process? Bonus."

Jack shook his head, trying not to think about dead bodies moving, seizing, tearing…. "And you wear that in public? What kind of-" He cut himself off, suspicion crystallizing. "Sensors. It's got sensors, doesn't it?" He waved a hand toward the two fresh dead bodies. "You knew those guys were there."

"I was able to track where they were," Sanzo agreed guardedly. "More or less." His gaze swept the surrounding fields and forests. "We're short at least two. Either they've been ordered out of the area, or they're out of range."

"Which is?" Jack asked pointedly.

"It varies," Hakkai stepped in, when violet narrowed. "Sanzo's usually accurate within a half mile. Beyond that, it depends in part on how many people are grouped together."

"Now see, that would've been nice to know," Jack said dryly.

"What's the point of telling you anything if you're not going to believe it?" Gojyo eyed him, not at all friendly.

_"Zombie uprising?"_ Carter sputtered. "Who's supposed to believe that? Dead - doesn't _move_ , it doesn't-"

"It's psychokinetic," Hakkai said gently, and pointed toward the dead youkai. "One of them was the controller. Possibly both. They used chi to stimulate the muscles. It's why… the bodies need to be reasonably fresh."

"H-how can you…?" Carter turned away, trying not to throw up.

"There are a lot of Earth legends that refer to the dead walking," Daniel said quietly. "Some folklorists believe the Grim Reaper was supposed to be a _comforting_ figure. Sort of. Because dry bones can't hurt you. But a dead body…." He gestured toward the fine ashes sinking into mud.

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed. "If your enemy serves a false god, it is not sufficient to kill him. The body must be destroyed, or you may face him again, at a time of his choosing."

_Okay_ , Jack told himself, breathing slowly. _Those two can handle this, time for the Air Force to hold up its end._ And time for him to think, really _think_ about their so-called local help.

After all, given Sanzo was lighting up yet another cigarette, he probably had a good few minutes before this planet tried to drive him crazy again.

"All right. _Zombies_." Jack shook his head. "Okay, point. I _wouldn't_ have believed it without seeing it." _And how I'm going to explain this to the general - ouch._ "So. _Now_ are you guys willing to give us a straight story?" He didn't - quite - point at Sanzo. "You can scare an NID guy into a faint, slow down bleeding, _hide_ us… what else can you do?"

"What, you planning to tell us the 'Gate security protocols?" Sanzo said dryly.

"That's _classified_ -" Carter started.

Sanzo smirked. "So am I."

"You're serious," Daniel said after a moment.

"Sanzo is the highest rank of spellcasting priest," Hakkai said frankly. "There are only four or five at a time. Even if an heir should start as an acolyte, his training in the temples only goes so far. The master handles the rest."

"Kanzeon and the Sanbutsushin know what a Sanzo can do with the sutra," Sanzo said levelly. "Everyone else, _does not need to know_."

_But your team's got a good idea_ , Jack thought. _They didn't flinch, even when you crispy-fried a village-worth of bodies. They_ knew.

_We're traveling with a walking WMD. A WMD a Goa'uld Queen_ wants.

The colonel chewed over the implications, and didn't like any of them. "There's going to be more assassins."

"There's always more assassins," Gojyo said bluntly. "Now do you get why I asked the general to stay? You're good, Sanzo, but even you and the monkey have to sleep sometime."

Goku stuck out his tongue. "Like you're not asleep half the time when they do show up, kappa!"

"At least _I_ wake _up_ when I toss an assassin through the wall, monkey-"

Paper rattled in Sanzo's hand. "Quiet. Now."

The two eyed the fan, and pasted on innocent grins.

"You're… carrying that," Jack said slowly, still not quite sure he was jumping to the right conclusion, "and Kanzeon lets you walk around in public? Without a whole armored division?"

"She can't interfere in people's lives. We can. When her people need help, we get cut orders." Sanzo smirked again. "Besides, haven't you noticed? I'm not exactly a _people_ person. I've got all the guards I can handle, right here." His expression eased, just a little. "Hakkai? Could we have a map?"

Dragon shifting on his shoulders, the healer pulled out a familiar colored rectangle, and unfolded it. "We're about here." He pointed to an icon of a structure in the mountain foothills. "That's the monastery."

"Where you say there are transport rings that can take us to Chang'an," Daniel nodded.

"And you showed us this already," Jack pointed out. "Unless there's something you forgot to mention?"

"Not forgot," Gojyo jumped in, before Sanzo's death-glare cranked up a notch. "But I'm going to guess you might be reconsidering exactly how we want to get there. Considering local conditions."

Good point. Jack eyed the mark Hakkai had made to indicate the Stargate near Aomura, and gauged the distance they'd already covered. Add that to the possibility of another ambush, and the various elevation marks he now had a better feel for- "We're not going to make it before dark."

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Gojyo sighed, tapping one of the topo lines. "And we don't want to be doing this stretch anywhere near night. Sanzo can follow us over a cliff blind. You guys - well, I'd hate to try it."

Jack eyed the blond, one brow rising despite his best efforts. "You climb. Blind."

"If one of my people takes the route first," Sanzo nodded. "I can tell where people are. It makes a difference."

Uh-huh. Sure. Trust in your equipment was good, but only trust in your _people_ could take you down a stone wall without sight. And more than trust. Hakkai and Gojyo were inches taller than Sanzo; Goku, at least half a foot shorter. If the blond wanted to use the same holds - holds he _could not see_ \- he had to know _exactly_ how his trailblazer was moving.

_What the_ hell _did Koumyou do to this guy?_

And, hard on the heels of that: _Oh, shit._

Because _someone_ had taught a frightened, abandoned linguist how to lead this bunch of maniacs, and it sure as hell hadn't been the SGC. And if Koumyou had taught Sanzo _that_ … then it also had to have been the former scroll guardian who'd taught Sanzo how to trust that deeply. And how to be the kind of man who'd inspire that trust in the first place.

You didn't turn your back on the man who taught you how to command. You _couldn't._

_We're not getting him back. Ever. Koumyou_ trusted _him. And Kanzeon sealed the deal, giving him a place for his people when he was pushed to the wall._

_…No. Not giving. She made him_ earn _it. She put Hakkai's life in his hands, and told him to do his job._

Game, set, match. Sanzo had paid for his name in blood. He'd walk through fire for Shangri-La. Wouldn't even hesitate.

_I really,_ really _need to have a talk with the general about how we train SGC civilians. This… we shouldn't have lost a guy this good. It's not_ right.

But that was for later, when he and George could have an informal debrief over steak and a few beers. For now… chalk up extra points in the " _way_ smarter than us" category for Kanzeon. Spooky.

Jack glanced at the map again, and shook his head. "So. This is the route you would have taken."

"Yes," Hakkai nodded. "But if we're going to be camping for the night anyway…." His finger traced a slightly different route. "It would take longer, and the terrain is not as easy."

"But it makes an ambush less likely, because they'd be expecting us to make a straight shot," Gojyo picked up the thread. "Kougaiji's tangled with us often enough to know Sanzo prefers moving fast. We don't know exactly how much he talks to his stepmother, but-"

"His what?" Carter said in disbelief.

"Guess we did forget something." Goku scratched his head, giving her a rueful grin. "Gyokumen Koushu's his stepmother. That's gotta suck."

"And here's where clan loyalty bites otherwise sane people in the ass," Gojyo said bluntly. "Most of the time, _stepmother_ wouldn't mean a damn to a youkai. She didn't raise him, she's not related - usually, if she wanted Kougaiji to do something, she might as well whistle for it. But." He held up one finger. "She's trying to resurrect Gyumaoh, Kougaiji's father. Why, how, we don't know - except Ni and the sutras are involved, and that can't be good." Another finger. "She had a daughter by Gyumaoh; Kougaiji's half-sister, Lirin. Cute little thing, with a punch that can shatter boulders. If she jumps us, for the love of god, _don't_ shoot at her. Let Sanzo handle it. Kougaiji will berserk if something happens to her. I've seen it once, and I never, _ever_ want to see it again."

"Don't know why he bothered," Sanzo grumbled. "Little menace."

"Aw. But she _likes_ you," Gojyo grinned.

"Does _not_."

"Now, now; we all have to accept the burdens of our karma," Hakkai said cheerfully. "Gojyo's skilled with women, I'm better with small children, and you, Sanzo… you have an absolute _gift_ for handling small animals."

_"Hey!"_

"Map," Sanzo growled, as Goku fumed. "Preferences?"

"Long way looks reasonable," Jack agreed, after trading a glance with Teal'c to get his read on it. "After you." As the group started sorting itself out, he added, "Just one more thing. How much does this sutra-watch of yours take out of you?"

"Don't worry about it."

_That much, huh?_ "Nobody makes good decisions when they're tired. Turn it off when you have to. Just give us a heads-up when you need a break-"

Violet knifed through him, cold as ice. _"That's. Enough."_

"Sanzo," Teal'c said levelly; a warning, to anyone with half a brain.

"Sanzo," Hakkai murmured quietly, hand barely touching the priest's shoulder. "I'm afraid there's been a misunderstanding, Colonel." A pause. "There _is_ no 'off'."

"So. Now that we're done rehashing useless information-" Sanzo's hand flicked out, a clear _gather up and move_.

_Useless info, huh?_ Jack thought. _I don't think so._

Though he could see why Sanzo would try to call it that. What couldn't be fixed, couldn't be fixed. No point in having your team fret themselves raw over things they couldn't do anything about.

_Explains some of the cranky_ , Jack told himself as they walked; part of his mind keeping an eye out for an ambush, the rest considering what he'd seen since Sanzo's bunch fell through the 'Gate. In the light of _battlefield-promoted team leader_ , not lost linguist.

_Huh._

From that angle, Sanzo's complete lack of concern about Hakkai suddenly made sense. Homicidal? So what? As long as it was aimed toward their enemies, and _not_ innocent civilians - Sanzo's team had been working under insurgency conditions for over a year. With an enemy that could _literally_ pop out of nowhere. A guy ready, willing, and able to kill at the drop of a hat was anything but a liability. Hell, he'd probably saved their lives. Multiple times.

Goku was a little harder to swallow, objectively. But rookies were rookies across the galaxy. Sanzo apparently tried to keep the kid out of the worst scenes, and sometimes that was the best anyone could do.

Gojyo was the hardest to pin down. Sha had been a _captain_ , for crying out loud. He'd had command training. The real thing.

Only from what Jack could remember, reviewing his record, none of Sha's prior commanders had ever expected him to make it past major. He was good, sure, and he cared about his people… only, not the way a commander sometimes had to. Sha could lead anyone into danger, but leave them to die? No. For him, the mission didn't come first.

_Add that to months as a POW-turned-lab rat, and having your whole head turned inside-out by alien instincts_ , Jack thought unhappily. _Sha's not fit for command anymore. Not without the kind of psych help he'll never get here. Maybe not ever._

Bitter as it was to swallow, Sha's best command decision… had been to _not_ try and take back command.

_Sanzo's a pain in the ass, but he's a_ sane _pain in the ass. He's got the kind of steel it takes to keep these four alive. And Ni never broke him; not the way Hakkai says Sha got broken._

Hakkai might be homicidal, but so far, he wasn't a liar. If he said Captain Joseph Sha was dead… damn it, Jack believed him. No matter how much he wished he didn't. 

_And this is the team Kanzeon uses for troubleshooters. Oh, joy._

Then again, the colonel reflected as they forded a stream, Goku pole-vaulting across with a whoop, it wasn't like SG-1 was the model of sanity, either. Take Daniel: orphaned twice, grandfather insane, sorta, and off with giant intangible aliens, father-in-law on another planet, brother-in-law an ex-host, and wife… better not to go there. Or Carter, with her family all at odds with each other, dead, or a Tok'ra host now implicated in screwing the SGC royally. Or Teal'c, who'd turned his back on his entire way of life to do what was right.

And the less said about Jack's own closet of nightmares, the better.

_Okay. So they're nuts. Given this whole planet seems to be nuts, we should give them a little leeway. Not too much. But a little. After all, "You wouldn't believe it until you see it" instead of "You're too primitive to be trusted with it"? Big difference._ Huge _difference._

Great. The people who worked for a _System Lord_ treated them with more respect than the Tok'ra. What else could go wrong? 

Jack rewound that thought, looked at it cross-eyed, and deliberately knocked on the next tree he passed. Just in case the universe had been listening.

As afternoon wore into evening and they made camp for the night, it seemed as if this once, Fate was going to let him skate.

"So I was trying to trace the etymology of the word Jack tried to use for _friar_ ," Daniel said, sitting down with a bowl of what purported to be macaroni and cheese. "It's, ah, not exactly a polite word for monk, is it?"

_I had to get my hopes up_. Sighing, Jack checked that Goku was on the other side of the banked fire. Not that it'd do much good if the kid decided to jump them - but at least Daniel had used English.

"There's a fine line between sarcasm and insult in Koryo," Sanzo said dryly. _Not_ in English. "Medieval Earth history's not my field, but from what I recall, _friars_ ," and that word _was_ English, "didn't exactly have the best reputation."

"Oh. I didn't think of that." At his teammates' puzzled looks, Daniel elaborated, " _Monk_ is associated with those in holy orders in a monastery, behaving the way they're supposed to. But in a lot of old literature, _friar_ \- though it used to just mean mendicant monk - was used to imply someone who spent more time feasting, hunting, and dressing up like a nobleman than actually praying."

"Hey, Friar Tuck was a great guy," Jack objected.

"And according to the Robin Hood legends, he was also a hermit who kept a pack of hunting hounds, regularly knocked people's heads in, and spent half the time drunk," Daniel pointed out. "Everything a monk's _not_ supposed to do."

Halfway through inhaling his dinner, Goku eyed Sanzo, and broke out giggling.

"Anyway," Daniel said, eyeing Sanzo's fingers twitching for his fan, "if that's the kind of thing the Tok'ra device was using to hang translations on-" He shrugged.

Carter shook her head. "How come the Tok'ra haven't fixed this?"

"Well, first off, they tend to stay away from priests." Gojyo grinned between bites. "Guy in charge of the last bunch didn't even seem to know Sanzo was a title, not just a name. Lucky for us."

"Selmak used the term _scroll guardian_ ," Teal'c noted thoughtfully. "Is it possible that Tok'ra knowledge of Koryo, and Shangri-La, is less than complete?"

"Why ever would you think that?" Jack said dryly.

"When did they use that term?" A flicker of flame glinted off Hakkai's monocle. "You said you believed that the Tok'ra staged the original raid to kidnap Koumyou Sanzo-"

"Dad didn't say that," Carter jumped in, defensive.

"Yeah. But it was how he _didn't_ say it that worries me." Jack grimaced. "Seems like the Tok'ra believe the Asgard won't give them any grief if the sutras go missing. As long as they don't make it obvious they went after Kanzeon."

"That's… not good," Hakkai said after a moment.

"Not for the Tok'ra," Sanzo snorted, steadily working his way through dinner. "They're Goa'uld, too. And not children of this world. The Arrangement has no limits on what she can do to them, if she catches them."

"Arrangement?" Daniel said carefully.

Not careful enough. Sanzo glanced up, violet eyes sharp and silent.

"It may be important," Hakkai suggested.

Sanzo glanced at the healer, then at SG-1, and shook his head mutely. Chewing on a bit of meat he'd snatched from Gojyo's bowl, Goku frowned, and edged over to lean against Sanzo's side.

_And he's not shoving the kid off_ , Jack realized. "Okay. Is this one of those things we _somehow_ should've known not to ask?"

"Not exactly," Hakkai stated after a moment. Studied his leader, and sighed. "They deal with Major Carter's situation. I don't think they'll be offended. And this sounds _important_."

"My situation?" Carter asked uneasily. "He's never been a host."

The locals traded glances; Sanzo winced, and shrugged.

"No," Gojyo stated. "But sometimes, you know things you didn't know you knew."

Jack felt his team tense, matching the locals' sudden watchfulness. "You want to break that down into small words?"

Sanzo's knuckles paled; deliberately relaxed, before he could break his chopsticks. "An apprenticeship should last years. Even an acolyte in the temple a few months knew more than I did. We needed time, and Koumyou didn't have it; not if he was going to have me pass as local with all Koushu's people poking around for Tau'ri. So he used a few… shortcuts." The priest looked up, smirk wry. "There are things in my head I don't remember until I run into a place where I _need_ them. After, they'll come up like anything else. But the first time you find yourself in the middle of a lecture on the Eightfold Way of Right Conduct when the day before you couldn't have named _one_ of them-" he shrugged.

Oh. Swell. But now both Carter and Daniel were pale, which was definitely _not_ swell. "You mean, he-" Daniel started.

"So just what is this Arrangement?" Jack jumped in. _Not now, Daniel. Intel_ first.

Sanzo seemed to relax. A little. "Flowery language. Give me a second…." Closing his eyes, he began to recite.

_Okay, now I'm impressed_ , Jack admitted reluctantly. _Guy can make even Goa'uld sound good._

"We the Asgard," Daniel translated, "having determined that the Goa'uld Queen Kanzeon Bosatsu has treated that which she holds of the Lost with reason and compassion, allow this Arrangement to be made.

"That her sarcophagus shall be sealed, and she shall obtain no other.

"That the inhabitants of her worlds shall be ruled without terror or enslavement.

"That no sentient being of her worlds shall be taken as a host without choice.

"That she shall continue in her care and research of what was Lost.

"To this end, we provide the protection of our Treaty, and the technology we have formerly discussed."

Sanzo opened his eyes, and shrugged. "That's all I've got."

"That's it?" Jack said in disbelief.

Violet eyed him. "Isn't that enough?"

Covered what Jacob had reported, sure. But it left a _lot_ of wiggle room. What were these Lost the Asgard were worried about? And, _ruled without terror_ , huh? Didn't change the fact that Kanzeon _did_ rule this planet, no ifs, ands, or buts. Not to mention, no one taken as a host without a choice? By whose definition?

"What technology?" Carter pounced. "Is that how she created the youkai? With genetic manipulation techniques from the Asgard?"

"Ask her," Sanzo said bluntly. "I'm a priest. Not a scientist."

"Except," Jack pointed out, "you're a priest with a nifty pop-up database in your head, and you've _been_ in Ni's labs."

"Hey! Just 'cause Sanzo knows when it's dangerous, doesn't mean he knows what it does," Goku objected. "I get _don't touch that_ all the time."

_Yeah? And how often does that work?_ Jack kept that behind his teeth with an effort. No way Sanzo was as oblivious as he was claiming. You couldn't say _no_ to a kid, not and make it stick, if you didn't have a pretty good idea of exactly what lethal things would happen to them otherwise.

_So he's not going to tell us about Asgard tech_ , Jack concluded. _Probably thinks it's_ classified.

Great. And what had he been thinking about these guys treating them better than the Tok'ra?

Fine. Two could play that game. "Nice little add-on you've got. Funny, how you somehow _neglected_ to mention it to Janet."

"And give you an excuse to lock me in a padded cell, for my own good?" Sanzo gave him a look that didn't just border on contempt, it'd exchanged ambassadors and set up dynastic alliances. "I don't know what psychiatric medications would do to the inside of my head, and I don't intend to find out."

"Besides." Sha leaned casually back against a bit of fallen log he'd dragged over for a fire reflector, basking in the warmth. "Janet couldn't do anything for you when that face-grabby thing had stuff downloaded in your brain. Why give the doc a headache when there's no problem?"

"No problem." Jack eyed the man, wondering how he could say that with a straight face.

Sha eyed him right back. "Less than one day, and you were losing English. Not much longer than that, and your brain was melting down to the point we had to dial a whole other galaxy to get someone to come fix it." He jerked a thumb toward Sanzo. "Sane, language intact, and if he were getting raging fevers Hakkai would snatch him into bed so fast his sandals would be smoking. Whatever Koumyou pulled off, it was calculated, it was _controlled_ , and it hasn't done anything but help."

" _We_ could help," Carter started.

"Oh, I'm not sure about that," Daniel said dryly. "Alien technology and current mind-altering drugs really aren't a good mix." Blue eyes were hard behind glass. "What I don't understand is how you can respect Kanzeon the way you do. You _trusted_ her representative, and he tampered with your _mind_ -"

"He. Kept. Me. Alive." Sanzo stared the archaeologist into silence. Rinsed out his bowl, and handed it to Hakkai. "If I'm not up by dawn, send in someone you don't mind shot."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Knurd_ \- Discworld reference. The polar opposite of drunk. The state Watch Commander Vimes is in all the time - which is why he tries to self-medicate with alcohol to get sober. He just can't quite get the dose right. To quote, "Knurd is a state beyond sobriety that is considered to be a revelation nobody ever wants to experience more than once." Specifically because it strips away all the usual comforting illusions people tell themselves about the world.
> 
> ....Sanzo pretty much does fit the definition of knurd.


	6. Our chaplain has arrived....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is a quote from Lt. Commander Dodge in "Down Periscope", as the Shore Patrol is manhandling a swearing seaman to the sub dock. *G*

Blood and pain and he _couldn't get there in time-_

_"Be strong, Priest-"_

Sanzo bolted upright with a gasp, almost tangling himself in the tent wall before he remembered where he was.

_We're not in the palace. I'm not an apprentice. It's not-_

A scatter like dropped beads, pattering into a steady drum.

_…Raining. Oh, gods._

Burrowing back into his sleeping bag was very, very tempting. Meditate deeply enough, and the whole world would be swallowed up in a gray ocean of misery. For a while.

But Teal'c was : _waiting, alert_ : on watch, which meant the rest of SG-1 should be up within the hour. And if Sanzo stayed put, O'Neill _would_ try to wake him. Meaning O'Neill would get shot. Meaning Kanzeon's chances of negotiating with the SGC to get the Tok'ra _off_ her planet - or at least, put them on notice that they'd been permanently disinvited - would go down like a rock.

Damn.

: _Patience_ : radiated through the tent wall. : _Anticipation of subtle revenge._ :

_Damn it, Hakkai. I've had a bad week, I can't shoot a bastard who deserves it, and I want to sulk._

: _Patience. Worry. Hands wrapped around a warm cup, liquid easing tight lungs._ :

…And he'd gotten Hakuryuu in on it, which was patently Not Fair. Sanzo sighed, and flung back covers. : _Coming._ :

Hakkai let him have a few minutes to take care of necessities, then appeared, offering a raised brow and a steaming cup that smelled like mint and burned pecans.

Grimacing, Sanzo gulped half of it down. _Ugh._

"Now, now," Hakkai chided gently, slipping hands under Sanzo's rain cloak to sense the flux of energy in throat and lungs. Hakuryuu was a white lump in the healer's hood, looking smug at being out of the wet. "You always say there's no reason to waste energy healing when prevention can avoid it in the first place."

"Nrgh." Shuddering, Sanzo drained the dregs. Rain meant more than bad memories for the both of them. Rain meant mold - and while Sanzo hadn't yet met a germ on Shangri-La that could put him down for more than a day or two, there was at least one kind of fungus out there that left him a coughing, wheezing ball of misery. _If_ they didn't head it off first.

Hakkai could heal him, of course. But he hated to _need_ it.

Satisfied, Hakkai stepped away. "Tea?"

"Mmph." At least the crispness of green tea rinsed the medicinal taste from his throat. Caffeine didn't hurt either. "Up early."

"Yes," Hakkai admitted.

Which was all that needed to be said. It'd been raining the night Kanan took her own life, and when Koumyou's life flickered out, and the grief rippled between them like water.

"You've been very tolerant," the healer mused. "I don't think they appreciate that."

Which was a warning sign, if Sanzo cared enough to pay attention. Right now, he didn't. _Let_ the bastards walk into whatever Hakkai had cooked up. As long as it didn't kill them. And it wouldn't. Dead, they'd never learn their lesson. "The Tok'ra are allied with the SGC, and Thor reportedly has a soft spot for O'Neill," Sanzo said bluntly. "Any move the hag makes against the idiots could drag in the Asgard. And _that_ could put Shangri-La right back in the middle of the System Lords' petty wars. Kanzeon has her children, and they'll fight - but she _doesn't_ have armies of Jaffa. We've got to try to negotiate first."

"Tok'ra don't respect host species," Hakkai said matter-of-factly. "Any terms they might come to with the SGC would need to be renegotiated decade by decade. If not year by year."

"I know," Sanzo sighed. "But if we can hold out another century…."

_"They're killing themselves."_

Kanzeon's voice. Kanzeon's nails tapping the arm of her throne as she looked over facts and figures. A waft of roses and vanilla; the familiar slide of silk and silver over his skin, and the weight of long hair brushing the nape of his neck-

_"Seven millennia we've poured across the galaxy, conquering world after world. Only this one will be their last. Ra's children are dead. They just don't know it yet…."_

"The Jaffa are killing the Goa'uld," Sanzo whispered.

"…Ah, what?" Hakkai managed.

"Being _raised_ in Jaffa." Drawing on Koumyou's training, Sanzo gripped those rainbow shards of _Other_. "There are millions of Jaffa. Who need new prim'ta every seven years. Why aren't there millions of Goa'uld?" He looked into stunned green eyes. "Outside running water, the larvae grow up too fast. The queens are less fertile. The adults don't all survive to take hosts. They're _burning out_. I didn't believe it when I put the numbers together, but-" Oh gods. Not again.

"One of _those_ memories?" Hakkai looked grave. "You're certain?"

"Yes." Inexplicable as those bits of _not-mine_ were, they'd never been wrong. "Kanzeon stopped using all but a few Jaffa centuries before, because… it made _something_ easier…."

"Genetic tampering, perhaps?" Hakkai murmured, face thoughtful. "We know she does. And raising the resulting larvae in water would allow one to control more of the experimental variables, compared to individual hosting in Jaffa-" He blushed slightly. "Oh dear, I really _did_ spend too much time in Ni's labs."

A joke. An honest to gods _joke_ about that whole awful mess. And it : _felt_ : real.

_Getting Gonou out? Good thing. A very good thing._

But Hakkai wanted information, not a laugh. Sanzo reached for those glimmering fragments, teasing out the last bits of what-had-been. "Once she had the projections, she stepped up her plan - partly because she _could_ , it fit with something she'd just-" Damn. Gone. "That's all I know."

"But you know she needs more time," Hakkai stated. "And from what you and Gojyo have mentioned, the SGC has a reputation for… accelerating timetables."

If not blowing them out of the water completely. "We can't let them know," Sanzo said bluntly. "I don't _remember_ Kanzeon's plan. She's the only one who knows enough to figure out how much damage they could do."

"So we have to keep them in one piece long enough to meet her. Meaning you'll behave. No matter how much you don't want to." Hakkai's smile was wistful, far more real than the usual bland face he turned to strangers. "You really do love this world."

"Hakkai," Sanzo growled.

"Shh, shh. You know I'll never tell." Green eyes were warm. "You love our home. That's why it hurts so much. Disaster ripped away your life like a flood, and you washed ashore… and you were _saved_. Someone cared. Someone _rescued_ you."

_Koumyou cared. Koumyou… thought I deserved a chance. Even though I was a stranger. Even though I helped attack his people._

_But the river took me, and I wasn't the enemy anymore. Just another lost soul. And he held out his hands…._

"Gojyo helped me live. You and Goku brought me out of hell," Hakkai said. "I never knew how much I loved freedom until I had it again. With people - with _friends_ \- who told me I deserved to have it. That I deserved to be happy. Or at least, that I deserved the chance to _try_."

"Hmph." Right. Friends. Like he'd ever admit that?

"Shangri-La saved you, when it could have killed you," Hakkai went on. "And the fact that it saved you - that it has the kind of people in it who _could_ save you, who would _want_ to… you love this world." A breath. "And you were hoping they'd love it too."

"I…." He didn't know _how_ to tell Hakkai he was wrong, but he had to be. There was no way he'd care enough about these SGC _idiots_ to want-

"After all, they're where you came from. And it's _hard_ to give up what you were." A rueful, sad smile. "Believe me, I know."

"Hakkai," Sanzo said quietly.

"I am youkai. Just as you are Sanzo. But inside, we still carry our ghosts. And sometimes, they cry out." A gentle shrug. "You wanted them to see this world was beautiful. That it was worth fighting for. And all they see is another planet, another mission. An _insane_ planet. Not a refuge. Not home; not someplace that could _ever_ be home. And it hurts."

One breath. Two. Throttle back the anger; it was pain, not reason, driving him. Own it. Acknowledge it. "Sometimes, I really want to punch you," Sanzo said bluntly. Looked away. "You're right." _Hold the cup. Don't break it._ "I can't do my job if I'm locked in my own head. I… appreciate that."

"Sometimes I want to punch you, too, Sanzo," came the healer's frank admission. "But then I'd have to heal you, and what would be the use of that?"

"No," Sanzo bit out. "If you ever have to give me a black eye, you can leave it." He tilted his head, : _listening_.: "Heads up." Not that Hakkai wouldn't have caught the scent of a Jaffa with larva, but what the hell.

"Sanzo." The Jaffa inclined his head politely. "Cho Hakkai."

"A quiet watch?" the healer inquired.

"Indeed." Teal'c frowned slightly. "I have considered our mutual difficulties."

"Really?" Hakkai smiled.

"As have you," the Jaffa said matter-of-factly. "The SGC plans to destroy the System Lords. It is fitting; they are false gods, and I have renounced my loyalty to them. Yet Kanzeon Bosatsu has always been spoken of as one who has held to her word, when she could easily have betrayed any number of her fellow Goa'uld and sheltered under the Asgard treaty. Her people here appear content. They fear the youkai, but not their gods. If Kanzeon has also provided her people with protectors such as yourselves, then she is honorable, and perhaps worthy of an alliance with the SGC." He eyed Sanzo. "She is most certainly worthy of respect."

"I'm surprised," Sanzo said neutrally. Teal'c : _felt_ : honest, but he could almost hear the other shoe waiting to drop.

"Had I thought on this difficulty in more detail, I would have asked General Hammond to consider assigning SG-8 to this mission instead," Teal'c stated. "The general would likely still have sent O'Neill, but we might also have been assigned one of their members. A trained diplomat, rather than those who have been forcibly taken as hosts, or have ties to the Tok'ra, or have been… abused… by Goa'uld Queens."

: _Daniel Jackson,_ : was the clear flavor of that last. "Damn," Sanzo swore.

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed with heavy irony. "You have presented yourself as the servant of a just and noble goddess, beset by forces her vowed word prevents her from destroying utterly. They do not believe you."

"But you do," Hakkai said thoughtfully.

"Before I was First Prime of Apophis, I was a student of Master Bra'tac." Brown met violet, level and unwavering. "His apprentice."

"I doubt the SGC would say Master Bra'tac messed with your head," Sanzo said dryly.

"He did not. Not as Koumyou did. But a master always shapes his student's thoughts - though the best masters further teach one to think freely. The Tau'ri have a similar phenomenon. I believe it is called 'boot camp'."

"Er…" Hakkai looked lost.

"Introductory military training," Sanzo filled in. "Ask Gojyo."

"Ah. Yes."

"If Koumyou Sanzo was your master," Teal'c went on, "it was his duty to instruct you in the skills needed to survive. In any fashion necessary. The master teaches; the student learns. And, if he is wise, survives." The Jaffa bowed, equal to equal. "That you have succeeded thus far, is clear evidence that Koumyou Sanzo was, in truth, a master. I would have been honored to meet him. And I am certain he and Master Bra'tac would have had much to discuss."

"I don't know," Sanzo shrugged. "Did Master Bra'tac make paper airplanes?"

Humor glinted in Teal'c's gaze. "I will suggest the practice, when next we meet."

Some of Sanzo's headache eased… though that was probably just the tea kicking in. If Teal'c could take paper airplanes even half seriously, maybe this wouldn't be a disaster after all. "Koumyou Sanzo," he said deliberately, "is the only man I will _ever_ call Master."

Watching them both, Hakkai cleared his throat. "So. Are you in favor of an alliance, Teal'c?"

"I favor investigating the possibility," the Jaffa stated. "Those we owe allegiance to have mutual contacts. If the Tok'ra claim to be allies of the Asgard elsewhere, yet work against them here-" A minuscule shrug. "Matters could become… difficult."

And if that wasn't the understatement of the month, Sanzo would eat Dr. Jackson's floppy hat. "Even a negotiated truce could be mutually advantageous," he observed. "If only to prevent both sides from wasting resources better turned against our enemies."

"So I believe," Teal'c agreed. "A true alliance might bring further benefits. Dr. Fraiser would be most interested in the methods of Kanzon's healers. Kanzeon herself might wish to send messengers to General Hammond, to learn what we know of her fellow System Lords. And both our forces wish to eliminate the zatarc threat."

"It is an interesting suggestion," Hakkai noted.

Which neatly saved him from having to agree to anything, Sanzo reflected. Nice.

Decided, he turned back toward where Hakkai had started breakfast. Grab some _now_ \- well, at least pick at it, to make Hakkai happy - and he'd have time to keep Goku from devouring SG-1's meal along with his own. Not that they'd appreciate it, the morons.

_They don't have to_ , Sanzo told himself firmly. _Like Hakkai said, I'm home. They can't take that away from me._

And if they tried….

Well. There was more up his sleeve than bullets.

* * *

 

_I hate this planet_ , Sam Carter decided, for the third time in the past hour. The rain - and Gojyo's innuendoes - were persistent. The fog and the death-glares shooting back and forth were worse. Their on-world guides ranged from sullen and smug (Goku and Gojyo) to eerily amused (Hakkai) to one-word snarls that had her checking for available cover.

_No one should care that much about a Goa'uld's reputation._

On top of that, she and the colonel seemed to have run into something that made poison ivy look like a wimpy wannabe. Itchy, red blisters dotted faces, necks, insides of elbows, knees, ankles, and various other places she was trying _very_ hard not to think about-

"My, your hands look red," Hakkai mused, almost strolling as they trudged along.

_Sadist_ , Sam thought, gritting her teeth. Would not scratch. _Would_ not scratch. _The man is a sadist._

A sadist who'd set this up. Somehow. She just _knew_ it.

From O'Neill's glare, he knew it too. From his silence, he couldn't figure out how the healer had pulled it off anymore than she could. Outside of food SG-1 had brought with them, they'd all eaten and drunk the same things. And when Hakkai had been on watch, so had Teal'c; the youkai _couldn't_ have snuck past the Jaffa to dose them with anything. It just wasn't possible.

_But he did it_ , Sam fumed. _We upset Sanzo, and that_ annoyed _him_. She couldn't think of any other reason a so-called healer wouldn't treat this. She did _not_ buy the whole "saving energy for emergencies" deal. She'd used a ribbon device before, much as she hated to remember it. It couldn't take that much out of him to fight.

Only he'd apparently convinced Sanzo that it did. The priest had looked them over with a cold glare, shrugged, and spoken the most words he'd strung together all morning: _"You'll live."_

And that, so far as Sanzo was concerned, was that.

_Chang'an. Stargate. Janet_ , Sam thought. _Then kill them._

"You're sure you've never seen this rash before?" Daniel persisted, trying his best innocent look on Goku.

"Well… I don't _think_ so." The kid shrugged, pushing past a branch that would have slapped Gojyo in the chest, if the disgruntled redhead hadn't caught it. "I mean, I know humans get sick a lot more than youkai-"

"They do?" Sam ventured. Anything, rather than think about the - argh. "And - you don't?"

"One nice side effect." Gojyo's smirk wasn't quite a leer; she weighed the merits of shooting him anyway. "Most I've ever picked up on this world is a case of sniffles. Good thing, too. Some of our fights get… messy."

"Not as bad as your bar-crawling," Goku snorted.

Lighting up as best he could in the drizzle, Gojyo smirked wider. "You've never seen me crawl, kid. And you never will."

" _Sure_ I won't, you pervy kappa-"

_Click._

_He did not just do that_ , Sam thought, stunned. Sanzo was still in the lead, revolver cocked, pointing up in the air… for the moment. _You do_ not _just take the safety off your sidearm just to - to threaten a subordinate!_

Though given the sudden _silence_ , it worked.

"This rain certainly is persistent, isn't it?" Hakkai observed mildly.

…It was amazing how _pale_ the two troublemakers suddenly turned.

"Hmph." Face _slightly_ less than lethally pissed, Sanzo made the gun vanish.

"I think we could use an explanation," the colonel demanded, furtively _not_ scratching. "What's up with the rain?"

"Oh, we don't like rain," Hakkai said blithely. "Not at all."

The colonel eyed the healer. "Because…?"

"You shouldn't ask what you don't want to know." Light gleamed serenely off the monocle. "And, you don't." Shading his eyes, Hakkai peered through the fog. "Ah. The interesting part."

Stopping with the rest, Sam stared up at the so-called foothills. If there was a goat-track leading up, the goats had been taking ninja stealth lessons.

"Monasteries are usually near _people_ ," Daniel complained. "Why isn't there a road?"

"They're not here to minister to the people," Hakkai stated. "They're a center for training and meditative arts. Usually, the only people who visit are from other temples. They're really not enthusiastic about dealing with those… not fully dedicated to the faith."

"Which means they'll be oh, so happy to see us," the colonel said dryly. "You want to go up _this_ in the rain?"

"What, you want to camp out here a few days, while the next band of assassins tracks us down?" Gojyo snorted. "Believe me, His Holiness over there isn't going to get any less snarly until this dries out. I'll take my chances with the rocks."

_"Die."_

"See what I mean?" Gojyo patted Goku on the head. "Come on, kid. Let's go break a trail."

"Not a kid!" Goku said hotly. Raced past them all, only to skid to a stop near Sanzo. "It'll be okay."

"Hmph." But the blond's hand rested on Goku's cloaked head a moment, rain beading on silver.

Goku grinned, gold eyes lit like sunlight, and dashed off.

"Seems like a good kid," the colonel observed.

Violet narrowed, eyed him - and Sanzo deliberately turned his back.

_Hey!_ Indignation blazed along with Sam's itches. _You don't get to-_

"Um, Jack?" Oddly, Daniel sounded no little annoyed himself. "Do you go to PTA meetings like that?"

"Do I _what?_ " the colonel asked blankly.

"Or do you just talk to other parents in the Mountain like that?" From the set of Daniel's jaw, he didn't _want_ to say this, but he'd decided it needed to be said. "Because if you do, I think I need to write a report to the general about a good, anthropological reason people with families keep asking for transfers _out_ of the SGC." 

O'Neill rolled his eyes. "Of _course_ they want transfers. We nearly got the whole Mountain sucked down a black hole once. Who wants their kids near that?"

Daniel sighed. With the slight upward push of glasses that meant, _Jack, those ears are not just for holding your sunglasses up._

"Fine, fine - what'd I say?"

"It's not what you say," the archaeologist said deliberately, "it's how you say it. Which is _probably_ why Teal'c hasn't called you on this before; he's a parent, but Tau'ri aren't Jaffa, so he didn't get all of what you just implied."

Teal'c put a brow up at that, but remained silent.

"Jack, what you _say_ is 'nice kid'. What you _imply_ \- tone, posture, the whole nine yards - is, 'either he's a gang-banger in a _really good_ disguise, or he really _is_ a nice kid… and that's just too bad, because you don't deserve him, you're going to get him killed, and it's such a shame it won't be _you_ '."

The colonel stood very, very still.

_Oh god. Oh, this is going to be bad._ "Daniel," Sam managed, shocked.

"Don't _Daniel_ him, Major," Sanzo said coldly. "He's right." The blond turned, just enough to rake violet ice down their spines. "You're bleeding all over the world, and I'm sick of it. So since your _friends_ can't seem to tie off the artery, let me lend you a _cauterizing iron_."

O'Neill's eyes narrowed. "Listen, you-"

_"Shut up."_

Sam's teeth clicked together, almost nipping her tongue.

"I'll spare you the differences between Christianity and the faith here on Shangri-La. Let's just take it as a given both of them say one of the deadly sins is _pride_. And god, have you ever nailed that one. Where the _hell_ do you get off thinking you're so special? That whatever you lost, whatever personal little tragedy _fucked_ up your head, was so much bigger, so much more _perfect_ , than anybody else's could ever be? _So_ goddamn perfect that you lost it because you _weren't_ perfect - just a regular, flawed, _fallible_ human, like the rest of us. _Just_ like the rest of us."

Sanzo hadn't moved. Sam wanted to cower back anyway. This - she didn't want to see this, didn't want to hear it-

"Well let me give you a fucking _clue_ , Colonel Jack O'Neill. We all have people who shouldn't have died on us. We _all_ have people we should have saved. The whole _universe_ is full of bleeding, grieving people who'd do _anything_ to fix what went wrong. Only they can't. That's _life_." Sanzo let out a slow, angry breath. "We're all sinners, Colonel. We've all got blood on our hands. But sometimes, some of us manage to hang onto something good anyway. Something decent. Something _right_. Even if we don't deserve it. _Especially_ if we don't deserve it. And you know what? Blood _washes away_."

Another breath, and Sanzo shook his head, waving a hand at SG-1. "These people care about you. Don't ask _me_ why. You can wallow in your guilt and your pride forever, and pull them down to drown in your blood… or you can _accept_ that sometimes, no matter how good you think you are, the universe is going to slap you with a _really bad day_."

Silence. Sam realized she wasn't breathing, and tried to gulp air quietly.

"I am going to get you to Chang'an, Colonel. I am _going_ to see if Kanzeon Bosatsu wants to try talking to you. And I will see that you to get back to the SGC. Outside of that, I don't care if you want to fricassee me. Because _General Hammond_ is in charge of the SGC, and Earth's defenses. _Not_ you." Robe a soft _shush_ of white, Sanzo stalked off.

"It's always enlightening, watching him do that to someone else," Hakkai murmured. The healer glanced at Teal'c. "You, ah, may wish to see that the colonel doesn't kill himself going up the cliff. He's probably… distracted."

 


	7. Why did it have to be snakes?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is Evil. And bureaucracy. 
> 
> ...Then again, all bureaucracies are evil....

_How did he know?_

Most of Daniel's attention was focused on the climb; it wasn't a vertical wall, but the path they were taking was steep enough any sane person would want a rope.

Which meant, of course, that Sanzo's team was free-climbing.

"Habit," Gojyo had said when Teal'c asked. "Ever been roped together when a winged youkai drags you off a wall? Not doing that twice."

"Some of them can _fly?_ " Sam had said numbly.

"Yep. And we can't."

Given Daniel was _not_ in the habit of climbing up sheer rock with nothing but bare fingers to depend on, he was glad for the rope. He'd trust Sanzo's senses to tell them if he needed to cut it.

Which, given he'd just seen Sanzo verbally take one of his best friends _apart_ , was more than a little disturbing.

_How did he know?_

Every word, every gesture, had pierced Jack to the bone. Enough to cut and sear and bring all that old, old guilt and anger at the universe boiling up until Teal'c had to grip Jack's shoulder, speaking quietly while the colonel could barely see straight-

Just enough. And no more.

_He knew exactly what he was doing._

Nothing factual Daniel could point at. Just a feeling. An impression, gathered from what he'd seen of Sanzo in the past, and the careful economy of what Sanzo had just _done_.

_He was… ruthless. Utterly. But… he wasn't_ cruel. _He never mentioned Charlie's name…._

_God. He_ knew _about Charlie. How?_

Sanzo wouldn't have heard it while he was with the SGC; that, Daniel knew from personal experience. Dr. Kouryuu Genjyo had been a geek, not a soldier, and certain things Were Not Spoken Of until _after_ a geek proved he could be relied on under fire. And maybe not even then.

Gojyo… Gojyo _might_ have heard about it. Maybe. But even though the Stargate had only been up and running a bit past four years when he'd gone MIA, the SGC had lost a lot of their original personnel. Outside SG-1 and General Hammond, there just weren't that many people who knew the whole sad story. And wrack his brain as he could, Daniel would have sworn most of those who did, wouldn't have talked.

So how?

_"Would you believe I'm clairvoyant?"_

Working his way past one of the easier spots, Daniel had to smile wryly. Sanzo sounded just as snarky in memory as real life. The same kind of "I _know_ you won't believe this" tone Gojyo had used about-

_The zombies._

_And the zombies were real._

_A biologically based weapon, that uses neurons - that drove an NID guy into a terrified faint, and almost scared me out of my wits just from the backlash-_

_And… if the_ dragons _are telepathic, and Kanzeon plays with DNA…._

_And… after that whole fiasco with Hakuryuu and the NID guy, Jack told the general he was_ sure _the dragon wasn't passing along details to Sanzo. How could he be-?_

Gripping rock, Daniel groaned softly. Oh, shit. Oh, of _course_.

"Daniel?" Sam asked, below him.

"Sorry," he called down. "I just thought of something. Um, not related to this-"

"Sanzo?" Almost at the top, Goku's voice cut across his attempted deflection. "I smell snakes."

Which wasn't a surprise; their guides had frankly stated this temple was in the middle of venomous snake country. And as frankly explained they were unlikely to have a problem; even with limiters, apparently, youkai didn't smell like humans. And the serpents weren't interested in sticking around near creatures that were not only fairly immune to venom, but often considered snake a delicacy.

_Very_ often, given how Goku had licked his lips, grinning. Even more than he had after he'd traded Daniel a bit of local granola for one of his candy bars yesterday. It was a little daunting, seeing the best chocolate the SGC could buy thought second to teriyaki snake.

"They're pretty close," the teenager added now.

Okay, _that_ wasn't good.

Silence.

"Sanzo?"

"Everybody, just stay still a minute," the priest sighed. "Need to shift a hold."

Making sure his grip was good, Daniel used the respite to revisit that first, impulsive conclusion. It rang true, unfortunately.

_See Jack. See Jack meet suspected telepath. See Jack test suspected telepath to destruction._

And how better to do that, than drag up a memory any _rational_ person would recoil from?

Only Sanzo wasn't rational. Not by SGC standards. A rational person would never have launched that assault on the Centipede Clan castle-

Well, maybe Jack would have. Which wasn't exactly a good argument for sanity, either.

_And one thing Jack never counts on_ , Daniel admitted ruefully, _is somebody else being as good and crazy as_ he _is_.

But Sanzo'd not only launched it, he'd carried it off. And gotten his people to safety, _and_ run over a year of search-and-destroy missions after that, all the while working with a group of people that could only charitably be described as a rag-tag group of misfits. Which meant that outside of the obvious anger management issues, Sanzo had a trained, _practiced_ self-control that made SG-3's Marines look like tired kindergartners.

_And Jack - just_ handed _Sanzo exactly what he needed to Ginsu him. Oh. Hell._

Reasoning ahead of his facts, Sam would say. Though she'd probably be a bit more blunt, and sprinkle in a Holy Hannah or two. He didn't have _any_ proof. None.

_But it_ fits. _The NID guys? Paralyzing fear. Hakkai in the infirmary? Janet felt_ safe. _And she says half of healing is believing you_ will _make it. The way Sanzo can sense enemies, the way he can read youkai instinct even though it's not human-_

_Oh. Oh, gods. No wonder the priests would rather die than talk._

After all, if for some reason the Tok'ra had one Dr. Daniel Jackson with intent to use him against the SGC, and he _knew_ it….

Still - speculation. He wouldn't have even considered such a crazy idea, if he hadn't met Thor. But given Kanzeon had-

_"That which is Lost." What if Sam and Janet are right? If this is some kind of species reconstruction, using human DNA to fill in the gaps? If you're trying to get something that works, you'd test all kinds of mixes. And - this isn't exactly Buddhism, not by a long shot, but monasteries? Groups of people organized into communities, praying and meditating._ Mental _training._

_And I'd bet anything that Sanzo aside, not all the monks and nuns have to be celibate…._

"Oh, Daniel," Jack's voice floated down, dryly exasperated.

"Ah, right," the archaeologist stammered. "Moving."

A few more scrapes, and familiar hands pulled him up. Giving Jack a shy smile, Daniel shook out his arms and walked clear of the edge. Jack could say climb with your legs all he liked, sometimes you just had to reach, and-

Catching everyone else's focused attention, he whipped his head around to see two robed, shaved-bald figures approaching. The older one carried a ring-topped staff, and wore layered robes in something close to saffron; the other looked to be mid-teens, wearing only a shorter, belted tunic.

_Monk, and acolyte in training?_

Whoever they were, they didn't exactly look happy to see visitors. Daniel squared his shoulders, started to step forward-

Sanzo breezed past, face expressionless - yet Daniel could have sworn he saw a glint of mischief in violet eyes. "Acolyte. Arms out."

"Revered Sanzo, I- ai-yi- _yi_ …."

Brown and tan scales, faintly diamond-patterned in dusty rose, slipped out of the folds of Sanzo's rain cloak into the acolyte's nerveless arms. The older monk gulped, and stood perfectly still.

Behind him, Daniel could almost hear Jack _not_ cursing.

"Careful," Sanzo warned. "Don't drop her. All the little mother wants is a warm spot to curl up and incubate. She won't bite you if you're calm. _Be calm_."

"Y-yes, sir." Pale and wide-eyed, the teenager cradled his armful of venomous serpent.

Sanzo's gaze weighed him; the priest nodded, and took a step back. "You're getting a bit lazy, little mother. There's not always a priest to catch a ride on when you need one."

If snakes could flick their tongues innocently, this one did.

"You picked that up on the way up here?" Jack demanded.

"Would you rather she bit you?" Fingertips on the acolyte's shoulder, Sanzo steered him toward one of the higher rock piles. "Down, gently, hands out…."

The snake uncoiled down, slithering up and out of sight in the rubble at a measured pace.

The acolyte sat down, hard.

"Now, if you can just keep the same level of concentration in your chants, you'll get somewhere." Sanzo eyed the monk. "Escort us to the high priest. The villagers of Takei have been murdered."

_That's one way to cut through the red tape_ , Daniel reflected.

As they headed through orchards to the temple - and it _did_ look like a Buddhist temple, though the snakes carved with the fu-dogs were a definite local touch - Daniel noticed Goku drop back to walk beside the shaken acolyte. "Don't worry," the young youkai confided, in what was probably _meant_ to be a whisper. "Sanzo's like that all the time."

Which didn't make Daniel feel any better, as they rounded a corner to approach the opening gate, and-

_Um. Are those bullet holes?_

"Oh, Blessed Kanzeon Bosatsu," a monk groaned from the anonymous safety of the back of the crowd, "it's Genjyo Sanzo!"

Daniel blinked. He'd never seen that many people scatter, and still try to _look_ like they weren't.

"What'd you do to these guys?" Jack muttered under his breath.

"My job." Striding forward, Sanzo zeroed in on an older gentleman in somewhat more ornate robes, who'd apparently reached the unhappy conclusion there was no _way_ he could sneak off fast enough. "The people of Takei village have been destroyed. I request that you send an armed rescue party, to search for any survivors. Well armed; there may still be two or three insane youkai in the area."

_Request, huh?_ Daniel barely kept himself from eyeing the heavens. When Jack used that tone, what he _really_ meant was, _this gets done, or I will personally hold you accountable for the reason why_.

_…Whoa._ He'd thought that Sanzo had to be fairly important, sure, based on the chakra, and other things, but- _Sanzo's got as much pull as Jack does?_

Apparently so; the head priest winced, but didn't voice a word of protest, politely beckoning them all inside. "Will you and your… companions, be requiring shelter?" The glance at Sam was definitely disapproving.

"Easy, Major," Gojyo murmured when anger lit the astrophysicist's gaze. "They don't get meat or sweets here, either. It's _not_ personal. Honest."

Sanzo ignored it all, though Daniel was sure he heard every word. "We won't be staying."

Daniel blinked, convinced he could almost _hear_ a mass, _Thank God!_ from every monk in earshot.

Come to think of it… there were a _lot_ of suspiciously clean robes around here. Which kind of implied they'd been doing a lot of laundry lately. And given monks like these, if their usual duties were close to those he knew on Earth, generally weren't given to large-scale grubbing in the dirt….

_Oh, for the love of… no. No way. He_ couldn't _have scared a whole monastery_ that _much!_

Then again… he'd believe _Jack_ could do it.

Still, it was a little hard to worry about it, walking into a building that set all an archaeologist's inherent scientific avarice squealing with glee. _Definitely Asian architecture, but they still have some Egyptian-Goa'uld influences; those are lotus-carved pillars!_ And- He stopped dead, in front of a hanging scroll.

_"Gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond…."_

"He knows the ancient script?" the high priest hissed to Sanzo. "But he's-"

"A scholar, from very far away." Jack's polite smile didn't reach his eyes. "Danny?"

_A version of the Heart Sutra. In Ancient._ It _hurt_ to walk away.

But they had a mission.

_Sometimes, I just wish…._

"We've got a whole library back in Chang'an," Gojyo offered.

Which made him the target of a half-dozen skewering looks.

"What?" the redhead shrugged at Hakkai. "I've seen you drooling at book-lenders before."

"I don't drool," Hakkai protested.

"Nah; you just look like it's New Year's, and you can't pick which mochi to try first," Goku grinned.

"Books aren't mochi…."

Either their host had heard some very weird conversations in his time, Daniel reflected, or he _really_ wanted to get Sanzo out of here.

"Anybody else get the feeling we're being kicked upstairs?" Jack muttered.

Teal'c lifted a brow. "We are using transport rings, not stairs."

"I know that…."

_Definitely wants to get rid of Sanzo_ , Daniel decided, following their guides deeper into the temple, past very polite monks even an archaeologist could tell were guards. _Wow. That's a_ big _set of transport rings… we can all go at once? Why don't other Goa'uld make them this big? Though the Tok'ra only want a few people into their base at a time, and most System Lords are only moving themselves and a few guards for intimidation-_

Jack cleared his throat.

_…And why is this place so distracting?_ Like being poked at with a half-dozen feather-dusters. Which didn't make sense, this was a nice, calm monastery-

_Training. Priests._

Well. Maybe getting Jack out of here as soon as possible was a _good_ idea.

Light glowed from Sanzo's shoulders, and the rings came down, a burst of light and cold that shifted them _elsewhere_ -

The chamber was big, and decorative, yet somehow neither as large nor ornate as Daniel had expected. More along the lines of simple designs that could be easily touched up, or replaced….

Or, patched over from the inevitable bullet holes. Because there were a _lot_ of guns pointing at them. And that was just from the monks.

_And nuns_ , Daniel realized, catching more delicate features under white and blue-trimmed hoods. _And… are those some of Kanzeon's Favored?_

Whoever they were, the man and two women were in what looked more like high-class layman's clothing, aside from the bright silver necklets and rings that looked disturbingly like Hakkai's. But they stood like they were perfectly comfortable with their co-religionists… in what Daniel had wound up in enough hairy situations to recognize as a carefully-planned crossfire.

_If we were hostile, we'd all be toast._

"Hah!" An elderly, balding priest in paler robes strode forward, ringed staff in hand. "Decided to come back from haunting the moon, have you? With guests?"

"Emissaries," Sanzo said dryly. "And you were right next door, you old tanuki. The snoring was so bad, they were debating how to boil you." He smirked. "I was waiting for them to break teeth." Face cold again, Sanzo eyed Jack. "Colonel O'Neill, High Priest Jikaku, in whose charge is the Temple of the Setting Sun. Behave. Or he'll feed you your spine."

A swirl of white and green, Sanzo stalked out, Goku skipping after him.

"Hey!" Jack started forward-

Three ringed hands flew up, and triggers _click_ ed.

Daniel glanced around. Yep, there were Hakkai and Gojyo, easing out of the line of fire. And being _let_ go, which was Not Fair At All.

"Hey… how's it going?" Lowering his voice, Jack grumbled, "Daniel?"

"Hello," the archaeologist smiled, deliberately stepping between Jack and the nearest ringed hand. "I'm Daniel Jackson, and it's nice to meet you. This is Jack, and Major Sam Carter, and Teal'c-"

"Don't worry, they already know us," Gojyo grinned, fading behind the guards. Chortling, Hakuryuu took off from Hakkai's shoulder, disappearing out the door.

"I sort of figured that out," Daniel said dryly.

Which gained him a chuckle from Jikaku, even as the priest raised a bushy white brow at Hakkai. "Not the most auspicious of beginnings."

"Sanzo's been polite," Hakkai said ruefully. "For about four days."

"You call that polite?" Sam demanded.

"He hasn't shot you once," Gojyo shrugged. "So, yeah."

"Oh, dear," Jikaku murmured. A gesture and a few words dispersed half the guards back around the rings, the rest filing out into the larger temple. "Well. Humor an old man and walk with me, Colonel? You've come a… very long way, and I imagine we might well make good use of one of the meditation rooms to talk."

"Before you try to put roast colonel on the menu?" Jack said dryly, matching Jikaku step for step and waving them to follow. For a man his age, the priest kept a brisk pace.

Jikaku chuckled. "Roast? I think not. Finely diced and stewed; you're not tender enough for anything less. Though that would be rude for emissaries. However, if you insist…."

"You're serious," Jack said flatly.

"I am a priest of Kanzeon Bosatsu, Colonel." A wry, wise smile. "And we were staring off Jaffa armies centuries before the Asgard decided to intervene." Jikaku eyed Hakkai again. "I take it we're dealing with the usual?"

"Since at least last night," the healer confirmed reluctantly. "And… off and on before then, since we left Aomura."

Jikaku sucked in a breath. "I'll have something sent to the baths."

"Thank you," Hakkai said fervently.

"Baths, huh? Yeah, he probably is headed there, the little hot-water addict," Gojyo shrugged. "Have to admit, it'll feel nice after all that rain."

"Rain?" Jikaku said darkly, with a look at Hakkai Daniel could only call _dubious_.

"Very heavy. Very cold," Hakkai said cheerfully. "And we shouldn't impose on you further, not when you have such _important_ guests to see to." Grabbing Gojyo's arm, he _moved_.

"Hey - what - Hakkai!"

They were gone.

"Well, that explains why half of you are down with rainfire." Jikaku shook his head, walking on. "Though I am surprised it's not three of you, if you're of the same land… I've sent for salves from our apothecary; we keep them on hand for lay visitors. You'll want to wash, and change your clothing; the spores can linger quite some time."

"Spores?" Sam paled.

"Laymen?" Daniel pounced. "You mean, this doesn't affect priests?" _So Hakkai - oh, you bastard._

"Oh, it does. Well, some of us," Jikaku mused. "Just, not as a rash."

"Spores?" Sam persisted.

"It's a forest mushroom, of sorts… heavy and cold rains bring it out. Now, where were we…." _Tch_ ing softly, Jikaku led them on.

_We've made a couple of turns, meaning nobody gets a straight run from the rings this way_ , Daniel reflected. _And everything we've passed is either heavy-duty or replaceable, with walls that look like they could be new in patches… what exactly does_ emissaries _mean?_

The room they entered wasn't big; just large enough that Jikaku could sink down on a cushion, and the rest of them could ditch their packs and hunker down at a comfortable distance without bumping knees, or dunking anything in the pebbled fountain chuckling in one corner.

"So," Jikaku said easily, "which god do you serve?"

_Sanzo_ , Daniel thought in one instant of clarity, _is a_ bastard.

* * *

 

Hiding an amused chuckle behind his polite smile, Jikaku watched the Tau'ri try not to react. Major Carter was easiest to read; the outrage of a free woman, mingling with memories of a creature who had died defying Ra's rule. Teal'c's stoicism was, in its own way, just as open a book; most Jaffa either hated or adored the gods that ruled them. It took courage and determination to renounce them utterly.

Colonel O'Neill's friendly neutrality was a far more effective mask, on the surface. Beyond it… : _guilt, frustration, calculation_ ,: pouring off like water. Yet pouring, like a reservoir that would eventually empty itself into a much-needed, quiet rest. Not seeping, as would usually ooze from the well-worn sense of a mind accustomed to venomous grief.

_Sanzo's been at him._

Though Jikaku doubted the colonel appreciated the effort. That was all right; the young man a high priest had shepherded through his first frantic weeks _as_ a Sanzo was stable enough to realize those who needed him most, were often least happy to survive the encounter.

_We use the power of our spells to guide the people, heal the sick, and find the lost. Yet whom do we turn to, when it is we who are lost?_

Priests, after all, fell into routines just like anyone else. Yet life was ever-changing, and one who did not change with it could come to great harm. Or _do_ great harm, if they were of Kanzeon's Favored, or a spell-caster.

_And so, we need Sanzos._

Guardians of the Sutras, certainly. Holy and exalted above all other priests - well, yes, supposedly. But most of all, _powerful_.

_Chosen by their masters, and Kanzeon herself. Their actions_ are _her will - so they may do that which is forbidden, when the rest of us may not._

As a high priest, Jikaku could instruct, and remonstrate, and guide those in his charge in a more correct path. Genjyo Sanzo could blaze through a temple, shake evil-doers out of hiding, shoot anyone who needed it, shoot _at_ anyone who simply needed a lesson in life's unexpected hazards, and otherwise terrorize into nervous breakdowns anyone who, for one reason or another, simply was no longer fit for the position they held.

_Blessed Goddess, but I do love that young man._

After all, who else would think enough of an old tanuki like himself to hand him such an interesting problem? Which the Tau'ri certainly were - and Daniel Jackson not the least of it.

_A natural empath_ , Jikaku thought. They were born sometimes among lay people, even those who hadn't had a temple relationship. Most eventually joined the priesthood, but temple records and his own decades of experience indicated the numbers of lay empaths had been slowly but steadily increasing. Which was part of what made Gyokumen Koushu's tactics so monstrously divisive. A weak, untrained empath, bombarded with lethal hate, would instinctively reply in kind - leading to atrocities on both sides.

_Yet even with no training, and little power, young Daniel_ is _trying to shield himself,_ Jikaku observed. _Wary, and yet he wants to trust… I wonder. Does he suspect what we are?_

"Among your legends," the bespectacled young man began, "do you have a story of the first world? Where humans were discovered by Ra?"

"We do," Jikaku nodded, projecting : _respect for another's caution_ :. "As we have stories of how Ra lost that world, and why. It seems even a god may tire of existence, and choose to return to the Wheel to be reborn."

Daniel almost flinched, radiating more quiet : _caution_ : and : _worry_ :.

_So. He does sense us._

"Choose to?" O'Neill said dryly.

"The arrogance to assume you are invulnerable is a choice, Colonel," Jikaku replied, equally dry. "Even for a god."

"You know who we are," the colonel said bluntly.

_After a slap at a god like yours, who could not?_ Ah, well. It'd been fun while it lasted. "Three humans, traveling with a former First Prime of Apophis?" Jikaku shrugged. "One scholar, one scientist with the touch of a dead Tok'ra, and one commander. All of whom carry weapons and gear not native to other worlds… yet seen here, when one of our temples was attacked, almost two years ago. Yes, I know who you are. Or rather, I know who the System Lords claim you to be. Who do _you_ say that you are?"

"Oh, that's easy," O'Neill shrugged back. "We're the good guys. Just ask the Asgard."

"I'd rather not," Jikaku chuckled. "I prefer to be polite to my guests - and given they likely see you as good but destructive _children_ , the answer might be embarrassing."

: _Fury._ : Tightly controlled, and well banked, but : _fury_ : nonetheless. And as pleasant as standing in an acid bath.

_If he's been enduring that for days, it's no wonder Sanzo wants to shoot the man_ , Jikaku thought ruefully. "It's better to laugh than to be constantly offended, Colonel," the high priest said matter-of-factly. "After all, we're not the race in danger of dying out, are we?"

: _Wariness. Calculation._ : Like spikes of ice; even after decades in Kanzeon's service, Jikaku was almost surprised to see his breath fail to frost. "Who said anything about anyone dying out?" O'Neill said nonchalantly.

Watching Daniel try to discreetly _poke_ the colonel, Jikaku had to laugh. "Know your enemy and know yourself, Colonel. What sort of goddess does not know the strengths of her allies? And their weaknesses." _Should I? Yes, I believe I should. After all, Sanzo already knows… even if he does not yet_ know _he knows._

What that young man might do once he finally learned the truth - well, Jikaku only hoped he was still alive to see it. It wasn't always easy, being the only one sharing Kanzeon's private joke.

  _Though I'll never forget the wine we shared when Sanzo brought Goku out of that cave,_ Jikaku mused. _"Lock the child up until he accepts a civilized parent", indeed. The Asgard may be technologically advanced, but they know nothing of the heart. They've cut themselves off from the instincts we_ need _to survive; human, youkai, kami, and Goa'uld. Trap the boy with minds that can't_ feel _hate and rage and love like the eye of a storm, he'd go just as mad as if that limiter shattered._

Well. Expecting the Asgard to change was like expecting the tide to run backward. So Thor and his ilk likely hadn't informed the SGC - and the Tau'ri desperately needed to know. "Believe it or not, Kanzeon Bosatsu has some interest in what you're attempting to accomplish," Jikaku stated. "So I will grant you this, freely: don't rely on the Asgard treaty too long."

: _Wariness. Disbelief. Fear._ : "If you know anything about Earth, you ought to know we don't exactly respond nicely to threats," O'Neill said grimly.

Daniel let out a slow breath. "I… don't think it was a threat, Jack."

"No," Jikaku agreed. "They're at war, Colonel. They're at war, and they're dying." He sighed. "They've bluffed the System Lords, for now; Goa'uld are slow to change, and they first met when the Asgard were strong. But my goddess has her own means of gathering information." He let his gaze sweep them. "If we're fortunate, their strength will last another century. If not - some of the Sanbutsushin's projections show their fall within the decade."

Silence.

Broken seconds later by : _outraged disbelief_.: "That's impossible!" Major Carter protested. "They're an _advanced_ species - we saw what they did to Heru'ur-"

"And we saw what a bunch of Replicators did to Thor," O'Neill admitted, emotions shifting toward honest, pragmatic : _worry_.: "Just because we gave them some good dumb ideas, doesn't mean they've got the little Legos on the run." He eyed Jikaku. "So what's Kanzeon planning to do if it all goes boom?"

Jikaku eyed him right back, debating how best to- well. Blunt truth would probably create the least ill will. "That, Colonel, you know full well should only be spoken of in more formal negotiations. _If_ they occur."

"She's going to throw youkai at them," Daniel said, eyes wide.

Well. The man was as quick as rumor painted him.

"If youkai can teleport - they can get on and off ships no matter where the Replicators are. If they can manipulate energy - not just shoot it, like a zat, but shape it… well, I don't know what that would do, but I doubt things that eat energy are going to like it. And her monks definitely know how to use guns." Behind glass, blue eyes were sober. "Which means Gyokumen Koushu is a big, _big_ problem. Shangri-La needs _more_ youkai, not less - and definitely not _crazy_. And they need humans and youkai to _trust_ each other."

"So if you're looking at a decade timeframe, worst case, you really ought to be doing a lot more to stomp her than tossing Sanzo's little band all over the planet," O'Neill concluded.

“On the surface, that would be the wisest course,” Jikaku agreed. “So tell me, Colonel. Why do you think we have not?”

For the first time, O’Neill truly looked at him. Weighed him.

_Good. The man can think_.

Familiar patterns of young emotions in the hall; Jikaku nodded as the young lay servants entered and bowed. “Your rooms have been prepared. The clothing and medicines you need will be waiting. Please follow Ayame, and enjoy your rest. We’ll speak in the morning, after certain tempers have had time to cool.”

“No offense, but I think we should talk right now-”

“The matters you wish to speak of will require an audience with the Sanbutsushin, if not the Merciful Goddess herself,” Jikaku said sternly. “If you wish to submit a petition for an audience, I will carry it. And you may wait, perhaps for weeks, until they return a decision on whether you will be permitted an audience. Or not.”

“But Sanzo said we could-” Dr. Jackson stopped, and smacked himself in the forehead. “No, he said _he_ could march right in there and demand an audience.”

“Even I can only petition for one,” Jikaku agreed. So long as Sanzo was in residence, of course. While the young priest was on the road... well, that was no concern of strangers. “And I can assure you, Sanzo will not bring you before the Sanbutsushin until he has made his own report.”

O’Neill grimaced, but seemed to take that as normal. Perhaps Earth’s military was as disciplined as Sha Gojyo had said.

“I wish you all a pleasant evening.” Rising to his feet, Jikaku bowed, and waited until they returned it. “There is one more thing you should know.”

Halfway to the door, SG-1 paused.

“When the case of Cho Hakkai was first brought to us, Kanzeon Bosatsu contacted the Asgard, and told them she had one of their Tok’ra allies, so they might collect it,” Jikaku said plainly. “The message they returned was simple. _‘Our allies state there is no Tok’ra Gonou’_.”

Major Carter paled. “But-”

O’Neill held up a hand.

Sensing their _:shock:_ and _:calculation:_ , Jikaku nodded. “Think on that, Colonel O’Neill. And then consider why we might not have been swift to destroy Gyokumen Koushu.”

* * *

 

_Oh god. Oh god, we’re in over our heads. We’re so far in, we’d need a crew of bulldozers to dig us out-_

“Danny.” Jack’s hand on his chest brought his pacing to a halt in the middle of their quarters; a room not much bigger than Jikaku’s meditation chamber, but with chairs and futons for all. “You’re wearing a hole in the nice, clean floor.”

“Sorry,” Daniel stammered, absently noting that the anti-itch salve really did work. Jack and Sam looked a lot better, even if they did smell of mint and burnt pecans. Like Goku’s granola, though that had tasted just a little bit burnt. “It’s just- I know who she is, Jack. I think I do. And it’s bad. It’s really, really bad-”

“Danny. Breathe.” Jack took a step back, and gave him a look askance. “Who she is?”

“Koushu,” Daniel got out. “Jack... we know other Goa’uld don’t get onto Shangri-La. We _know_ that. According to the Tok’ra, even Nirrti’s tried to crack the place. It wouldn’t be standing if anything she made got through.”

“Yeah. Except for Koushu,” Jack started.

_“Jacob was lying.”_

“You don’t know that,” Sam argued.

“I believe Daniel Jackson does,” Teal’c said thoughtfully. “It would be a reasonable deduction, even if he did not. The Tok’ra have been deceptive about Shangri-La from the beginning.” He gazed at Sam. “Do Jolinar’s memories include why Selmak wished to execute the child Son Goku?”

“They want her dead,” Sam said, after a moment’s troubled thought. “I hear Kanzeon’s name, and sometimes - sometimes there’s just this _hate_ that comes up like acid. She has to die.”

“The Asgard would object,” Teal’c noted.

“Maybe not,” Sam said bleakly. “Sir, Janet and I had time to run a few tests before you left, we just haven’t had any privacy until now....”

Daniel started to object, then shook his head. If Jack hadn’t already thought of a dozen non-psychic ways they could be spied on, mentioning it wouldn’t help.

“...I think Goku _is_ what was Lost.”

Jack raised an eyebrow, clear _go on_.

“He’s an alien, sir,” Sam said steadily. “Not variant human. Alien. But the youkai, and Sanzo - they are variant humans. Engineered with DNA from Goku’s species. Kanzeon’s researching them. She may be trying to _recreate_ them. And if that one known original individual were destroyed....”

“Her research falls apart, treaty’s broken, and the Asgard hang her out to dry,” Jack finished. “Meaning everything she’s got, including the Scriptures, might be loot for whoever got there first. Like, say, some of Kanzeon’s nastier offspring, we’ve seen that before....”

Jack trailed off, and Daniel winced. On the one hand, good, he wasn’t stating the obvious. On the other-

_He’s going to make Sam say it. It’s not fair_.

But Sam squared her shoulders, and faced it like a soldier. “Or the Tok’ra.” She turned toward Daniel, the faintest hint of hurt shining from blue eyes. “That’s what you think. That’s why you’re panicking. You think Gyokumen Koushu is a Tok’ra.”

“I think we need to consider the possibility,” Daniel admitted, wishing he looked half as miserable as he felt. “But there’s something even more basic we need to think about. And it’s my fault we missed it, I should know better-”

“Danny,” Jack said quietly.

Daniel stopped. Took a deep breath, counted to three, and exhaled. “Jack, we’ve been so focused on _alien_ we haven’t thought about _people_. Individuals. And we should, even the Goa’uld can listen, if it takes a whole Asgard warfleet to get them to the table-” _Breathe. Sum up_. “How do we know all the Tok’ra agree on what they plan to do to the System Lords?”

Jack whistled, low and long. “Now that? That is not a happy thought.” He shrugged, waving a hand Teal’c’s direction in a plain, _What do you think?_

“The Linvris considered themselves enemies of the System Lords, yet were not Tok’ra,” Teal’c observed. “Had we found them as living beings, would they have been allies of the Tau’ri? Or enemies?” A deliberate headshake. “I do not know enough of them to be certain.”

“Yeah; nasty little bunch of rebel snakes, but I wouldn’t have wished Ma’chello on them,” Jack reflected. Skewered Daniel with a look. “Don’t you start with feeling guilty about Ma’chello just because he found a way to kill System Lords. Those critter-infested page-turners of his may have killed some Goa’uld, but I’d bet next week’s poker wins that they killed a lot more Jaffa. And regular people who picked up one of the crazy-making bugs by accident, just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

_Like I did_ , Daniel thought. But there was a deeper note of guilt in Jack’s voice. “Jack?”

“Skaara,” the colonel admitted. “Was just thinking... what if he’d picked up one of those page-turners, while Klorel was still in him? On the wrong side of a Goa’uld-only door.”

Oh. Oh, that was... Daniel had thought about how the Linvris’ hosts must have died, starved and dehydrated in a room only the Goa’uld inside them had known how to unlock. But that didn’t have the impact of picturing Skaara desperately clawing at impenetrable metal, with no hope of escape....

“It did not happen.” Teal’c looked at them each in turn, solid as a mountain. “To allow the System Lords access to a technology that broadcasts zatarc programming benefits neither the Tau’ri, nor Kanzeon. We will state so, and determine if the Queen of this planet is willing to listen to reason. If she truly has held to her Arrangement, and abandoned the use of the sarcophagus... that may not only be possible, but likely.”

“And that’s what worries me, sir.” Sam shook off guilt, science-sharp once more. “We know it’s addictive. And we know how touchy System Lords are about their power. Why would one let the Asgard dictate those terms?”

Teal’c’s head turned toward the door.

The knock was firm, and no nonsense, and wasn’t bothering to pretend not to hear them. “Because when she made that Arrangement,” Sanzo’s voice came through solid wood, “Kanzeon _wasn’t_ a System Lord.”

Jack glanced at Daniel. Daniel shrugged. “Say ‘Friend’, and enter?”

“Would you settle for less homicidal acquaintance?” Wood creaked as Sanzo opened the door and stepped through, looking a lot cleaner and a bit less cranky than usual. He waved a sheaf of papers in one hand. “I sent my minions to do some research.”

“Minions?” Jack leaned nonchalantly back in his chair, an amused smirk flickering over his face.

“High priest of Kanzeon,” Sanzo said dryly, handing Daniel the neat handful. “How could I be properly evil if I didn’t have minions?” He snatched a stool, settling on it in a half-lotus pose that made the archaeologist’s legs hurt just thinking about it. “That, Major Carter, is exactly what I wondered about on the way here. Not to mention I know Kanzeon’s been careful about palace security for centuries. But you said the Tok’ra had a good picture of her, close enough to see the chakra. So I went poking.” One hand rifled through his white sleeve, pulled out a flat tablet that didn’t _quite_ look like the usual Goa’uld tech. “The sum-up’s in those papers. Everything I used for reference pulling it together is in here.”

Daniel stared at the device like it was as venomous as the cliff snake. “Um....”

“Historical data, not tech,” Sanzo said plainly. “You could get all this yourself if you had a few months free to research in the temple archives. You don’t. Which is a damn shame. There is _amazing_ stuff in there....” He shook his head, obviously impatient with himself for wandering into historical geekery. “Point is, this is _available info_. To anybody who wants to come research in the temples. So. Take it.”

Nerving himself, Daniel took the tablet. “Thank you?”

And Sam proved once again that she was an incredibly considerate person, because she took it out of his hands when they wanted to shake. “The information might be,” Sam stated. “The technology here-”

“What, you think you’re going to get a world-destroying device out of analyzing an e-book reader?” Sanzo snorted. “Besides. You’ve got bigger goals. If you play fair, you might get more of those, and you know it.”

“And you think we might play fair.” Jack shrugged. “So, oh master of minions. If Kanzeon wasn’t the System Lord here fifteen centuries back, what happened?”

“She wasn’t the System Lord,” Sanzo stated. “She was one of Śakra’s Queens, with a serious bent toward genetic and non-Goa’uld tech research.”

“Śakra - that’s another name for the Jade Emperor, in Buddhism,” Daniel blurted out. Thank goodness for quick cramming on that group of myths when he’d realized they were dealing with Shangri-La again. “But the Jade Emperor is Yu. We’ve met him.”

“Different branch of the legends, different Goa’uld,” Sanzo shrugged. “This guy was definitely _not_ Yu. He was Śakra, also known as _Śakro devānām indraḥ_. Śakra, Lord of the Devas. Though these days, people mostly call them kami.”

“Kanzeon’s offspring,” Sam exclaimed.

Sanzo fluttered a hand, _yes and no_. “Some of Kanzeon’s offspring are in kami. The Heavenly Army. Some are in ordinary people. Kanzeon’s Favored. And some kami are just themselves, wandering around getting into trouble. There’s not a lot of them, but they’re out there.”

Jack sat up, just a fraction straighter. “Hok’taurs.”

“Probably,” Sanzo allowed. “Stories say they have weird powers, and they’re even tougher than priests. Haven’t met any, that I know of.” He settled himself on the stool, looking into the distance as if organizing his thoughts. “Anyway. When the Asgard made their deal, Śakra thought he’d pulled one over on the gray guys. After all, what was he giving up? If Kanzeon managed to get herself into a pickle bad enough to need a sarcophagus, well, so sad, he had other queens.” Violet eyes creased, darkly amused. “And then, it looks like he started thinking. What did a bunch of telepaths know that he didn’t?”

“Those little gray bastards,” Jack smirked.

Sanzo smirked right back. “Oh, I bet she was scheming to take over even then. She’s twisty and smart and scary as all hell when she gets an idea. Remember that. _But_. I’d bet she wasn’t planning anything that would have _killed_ him.”

“System Lords tend to exile their defeated enemies,” Daniel agreed. “That didn’t happen?”

“I want to dig into it a lot more, because it looks like things got messy,” Sanzo said soberly. “What I’ve found so far - one of the lesser Goa’uld in Śakra’s entourage, Li Touten, wasn’t of his lineage. Happens, usually isn’t a big problem, System Lords just keep them away from the really secret stuff. Only this particular Goa’uld was also into gene-mixing, and it looks like Śakra thought he could use the guy to undermine Kanzeon and scoop all her research out from under her, then leave her twisting in the wind for the Asgard to zap.” He drew in a long breath. “And then the Tok’ra stuck their fingers in.”

“Messy,” Jack reflected. “Do tell.”

“Like I said, I want to do more research,” Sanzo growled. “What I could get? There was a massacre. Running, screaming, things on fire. And at the end of the day Śakra and Li Touten are dead, so are half the Heavenly Army, there are monsters loose on Shangri-La we’re still dealing with today, and Kanzeon’s on the throne.” He paused. “And the temple records say even the trees in Heaven wept, because Kanzeon lost part of her family that day. She’s hated the Tok’ra ever since.”

_Oof_. “Um... we are allied with the Tok’ra,” Daniel had to remind him.

“Dr. Jackson. You of all people know you don’t have to _like_ someone to work with them,” Sanzo replied. “I can tell you right now one thing Kanzeon’s going to want is for the SGC to _officially_ tell the Tok’ra she’s asking them to get the fuck off her planet. That way you can tell the Asgard she asked, and she can squash the bastards if she catches them. Because this last mess with Gonou is one of a long, long list of Tok’ra making problems here, and she’s had it.” He stood. “So. You’ve got info. You’ve got some time to poke it. I suggest you use it. Kanzeon has a sense of humor.” He took a step away-

Stopped, and sighed. “Colonel.” Sanzo turned back toward them, violet eyes narrowed in pure irritation. “I have to apologize for the rash. Hakkai... has a vicious streak. Especially when the idiot thinks he’s protecting me. And I didn’t know enough to catch him at it. This time.” He glanced at Daniel. “And you’d better keep a close eye on what you’re eating. Only reason you’re not down with a rash is Hakkai managed to slip you the preventive medication. I’d love to know how. Rainfire tea tastes _awful_.”

One fluid turn, and Sanzo was out the door, soundless as a ghost.

Daniel waited until Teal’c’s nod said the man really was out of earshot, then let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “How on earth did he get through grad school? Any Ph.D. I’ve ever met would have taken him on an overseas field trip and lost him in Customs.” _Huh_. “Unless he blackmailed them. I could see that.”

“Guy gives you research material,” Jack said lightly, “and you still don’t like him. What gives?”

“It’s not that I don’t... I mean, yes, I don’t, but....” Daniel sighed. “Sam? Could you pass me that salve?”

She handed the shallow dish over, brows blonde slants of worry. “Are you coming down with it too?”

“Don’t think so. I just....” Daniel took a good sniff, allowing for the buttery tang of some kind of vegetable fat. “Goku’s granola.”

“Hakkai mixed the kid up in slipping you a dose,” Jack said flatly.

“We can’t assume that, sir. Different species,” Sam said firmly. “Janet has to deal with this all the time when she medicates Teal’c, or myself. Being from different races, or just having been exposed to different compounds in the past, like naquadah, can leave a heck of a mark on your immune system. For Goku it might just be granola. Sanzo apparently has to take his medicine as a tea. And we got an external salve.” She hesitated. “Sir, based on the pace they set, they don’t usually travel with normal humans. It’s possible Hakkai didn’t have anything in his kit that he was sure would specifically treat us.”

“Healing device,” Jack pointed out.

“Works on injuries and blood loss, sir,” Sam shrugged. “I don’t know nearly as much about using it as Janet would like, and I’ve never tried it on an immune response. Janet makes sure Daniel has epi-pens for a reason.” She grimaced. “A Tok’ra immune system takes over for the host. It’s possible a healing device wouldn’t even touch a rash. I just don’t know.” She wove her fingers together, studying fading blisters. “That’s one of the things Janet wants us to ask for. Healers. Even just information on what a healing device can do. And can’t.”

“And anything else she can get her mitts on that’ll let her put people back together, right,” Jack nodded. “Doc would think of that.”

“If we can talk to healers that aren’t Hakkai,” Sam shuddered.

“To speak with healers that are not personally involved in Sanzo’s care would be wise,” Teal’c observed. “Dr. Fraiser devotes a great deal of time and care to her most difficult patients, especially SG-1. From what Dr. Fraiser and Major Carter have uncovered, Sanzo is a particularly challenging patient, whom Cho Hakkai must go to some lengths to keep in fighting condition. It is likely he regards any threats to Sanzo’s health as fiercely as Dr. Fraiser would to ours, and will show as little mercy.”

“And I didn’t think he could get any scarier,” Jack said lightly. “So. Assuming our little homicidal non-maniac wasn’t just indulging in not _quite_ killing people - how’d we mess with his patient?”

_Oh, I really didn’t want to say this_ , Daniel winced. “Jack... I think Sanzo’s an empath.”

If someone had dropped a pin, it probably would have clattered like cymbals.

“Empath,” Jack repeated. “Did Goku hit you in the head when we weren’t looking? Because soft and cuddly, that guy is not.”

_Argh_. “I said empath. Not that he was _sympathetic_.” _And he might not be the only one, which means we’re stepping on all kinds of cultural toes we don’t even know are there - focus_ , Daniel told himself. _We know about Sanzo. We suspect the priests. Regular people might be just that - Gojyo sure isn’t picking up emotions, or he wouldn’t be trying to charm Sam. I think_.

“Oh.” Sam’s eyes went wide. “No wonder he hates people!”

“Major Carter?” Teal’c leaned forward, intrigued.

“What he said,” Jack seconded. “I’m still trying to get my mind around, Daniel thinks Sanzo - the guy with the gun, who makes some of the murdering bastards we met on Sokar’s hell-world look like sweet little angels - is an _empath_.”

Sam stiffened. “When Jolinar... took me as a host. I couldn’t always know what she was thinking but I knew what she was _feeling_. All the time. When she was afraid of the ashrak. When she was furious at us - absolutely, lava-hot fury - for imprisoning her when we were just primitive humans. When she....” Sam winced. “When she said Teal’c was _only_ Jaffa.”

_Disgust. Most dehumanizing emotion there is_ , Daniel thought bleakly. “It wasn’t you.”

“It wasn’t. I know that. But I _felt_ it. I couldn’t not feel it.” Sam raised her head, looking Jack straight in the eye. “Sir, we all know... how you feel about some things. We’re okay with that. You’re our commanding officer, and they’re _your_ feelings. But we just know how you feel. If Daniel’s right....”

“Then whatever you did to upset Hakuryuu, Sanzo got hit with it too,” Daniel sighed. “And everything - and I mean _everything_ \- since. Hakkai straight-out told us, _there is no ‘off_ ’.”

“He was talking about the sutra-” Jack cut himself off. “Oh, hell no. Hakkai let us _think_ it was the sutra. You say it’s not?”

“It would fit Janet’s theory,” Daniel said practically. “Just add empath that can receive as well as project, and - boom.” The archaeologist winced. “Sanzo said you were bleeding over the world. I don’t know about that, but I think you were definitely bleeding on him.” He spread empty hands. “I have a hard enough time dealing with our allies when I can just guess what they’re thinking. Now think how you’d act if you had to deal with the Tok’ra and, at the same time-”

“Feel the smug?” Jack whistled. “Okay, snarly at the world, I could see that. Still doesn’t explain how he can _kill people_.”

“In the same way as any hunter does,” Teal’c observed. “One cannot hunt your prey without knowing what it does, and why.”

“Being around youkai... might actually be easier,” Daniel agreed reluctantly. “ _I want to kill you_ \- it’s scary, but you can live with scary. _I don’t think you have the right to exist, except as a host_ \- that would make me want to kill things. A lot.” He shivered a little. “And... that’s what worries me, Jack. Sanzo’s being too nice. He apologized.”

“He’s back on his home turf,” Jack pointed out. “He might have just eased up, now that Goku’s out of reach of the evil guys with scalpels.”

Daniel gave him a sidelong look.

“Or not,” Jack allowed. “So. He’s up to something. We knew that. Question is, is he up to something that’s our problem? Or just meant to kick the Tok’ra in the teeth?”

Daniel grimaced. “We have an alliance with the Tok’ra.” Someone had to say it, for as long as Earth decided to hold up their end of the deal.

“But Kanzeon doesn’t,” Jack observed. “And if Goku is what we think he is, the High Council’s already tried to kill the kid once. And damn it, that is _not okay_.” He let out a steam-kettle hiss of breath, one finger tapping on the arm of his chair. “What I want to know is why. Can’t be just the tech. Jacob would tell us what it was - and that it was something Earth shouldn’t mess with. This - it’s too vicious. Too scorched-earth. Something about this is _personal_.” He gave Daniel a frank look. “So don’t make Sanzo personal. If the Tok’ra aren’t thinking straight about Kanzeon, somebody has to.”

“It’s not... Sanzo’s scary, Jack,” Daniel admitted. “Anthropologists aren’t supposed to be scary. We’re supposed to talk to people.”

The look in Jack’s eyes made him want to find a hole to crawl into. Sanzo had _talked_ to Jack, all right. Like a blowtorch talked to tinsel.

“He didn’t have the right,” Daniel said darkly. “To say what he said to you about Charlie. I don’t care how much you hurt him. He’s never buried a son.”

“Sometimes you never know what a guy has buried, until it’s too late.” Jack shook it off, and glanced at Sam. “Carter, you look way too cheerful for someone with the snake version of a Kindle stuffed with History of Religion.”

“It’s not the device, sir. It’s what it means.” Sam looked up from where she’d been fiddling with the touchscreen and little buttons. “Sanzo said he put the source materials on here. That means there’s a good chance this isn’t just a portable e-reader.” Blue eyes were focused. Intent. “It may have _archive access_.”

Daniel saw Jack’s eyebrows flick up with interest, and Teal’c’s slight nod. And firmly suppressed his own manic grin.

_Sam with a way to access Goa’uld databases? Look out, Kanzeon_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The perils of mixing show mythos. In Saiyuki the guy in charge who gets assassinated was the Jade Emperor... only in canon SG-verse, that’s Yu. Who is very much still alive. So I took the India-mythos route available through Saiyuki background, and created another System Lord: Śakra, the Jade Emperor's Buddhist counterpart. 
> 
> According to Wikipedia, his full title is Śakro devānām indraḥ (शक्रो देवानामिन्द्रः; Pāli: Sakko devānaṃ indo), “Śakra, Lord of the Devas”.


	8. Kittens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SG-1 meets Kanzeon. 
> 
> ...Yeah, I'm hiding under the covers too.

Glasses on, Sanzo paged down on his office tablet, scanning through dry Heavenly Army documents for any traces of their enemies. The mess in the Heavenly Palace that had propelled Kanzeon Bosatsu to power was a few years later than the original battle with Gyumaoh and the rest of the Ox Demon Clan, but poking into files on Emperor Śakra had pulled up new names and keywords to investigate.

“Sanzo.”

Centuries-old supply requisition sheets might seem like a waste of time, but there were certain devices and materials you had to have for youkai gene manipulation. Track down who’d requested what, and he had a thread to pull to find out who’d had the kind of tech knowhow _then_ to be working in Koushu’s labs now.

“Saaaanzo.”

Always assuming Ni Jianyi hadn’t taught all the bastards himself. Possible, but not too damn likely. For one thing, from what Hakkai and Gojyo both remembered, the sadistic bastard only had that kind of patience when he was inflicting some all-new genetic torment on a helpless prisoner. For another-

“Sanzoooo!” Hands tugged on his robe. “It’s breakfast! You promised Hakkai you’d eat.”

Damn it, he had. Sanzo rubbed dry eyes, saved his links and keywords, and swept off his glasses. “Coming, monkey. Relax.”

Goku gave him a dubious look, and didn’t let go of his sleeve. Blinked up at him, gold eyes hopeful. There might have been trembling puppy-eyes involved.

Blackmail. Pure and simple blackmail.

He let Goku drag him toward the smells of food, but kept a good grip on his notes.

“Oh, no.” Gojyo kicked back from the little table in the kitchen Hakkai had insisted on installing in their quarters after that first marathon trial. Something about the monks being fussy about preparing enough meat for a growing youkai youngster. Hakkai had been smiling while he said it. Sanzo had felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise, and decided to intervene before someone got filleted. “Tell me you’re not going to face the Sanbutsushin on a research binge and no sleep.”

“If it were just the Sanbutsushin, I wouldn’t sleep for a week.” Ah. Coffee. Someday he really wanted to track down how Kanzeon had snagged Earth’s gift to insomniacs and all-nighters. “But we’re going to be playing tour guides to Earth’s best and brightest while they try to out-plot Kanzeon Bosatsu. So I slept.”

Hakkai paused, mug raised. Blinked once, and finished his sip. “The Sanbutsushin said they’ll have an audience?”

“Didn’t have to,” Sanzo said darkly. “This is what Kanzeon’s been aiming toward since Koumyou fished me out of the river. Probably before that.”

Gojyo swallowed the bit of fried potato he’d been gnawing to death, and waved a wary fork Sanzo’s direction. “Break that down into steps for the rest of us.”

Hell. He didn’t want to say this. “Koumyou prowled through my head. Everything I know about the SGC - everything I know about _Earth_ \- is compromised. Damn it.”

“Oh. Ack. How terrible,” Gojyo deadpanned, leaning back into an even more casual slouch. “I figured that out a year ago, after Hakkai and the fluffball bounced a few images at me. So?” A scarlet brow went up. “Is that why you’ve been hacking the Heavenly Palace’s floorplans? Thought you didn’t do guilt.”

Sanzo shot a dark look at Hakkai. There were a grand total of four people he knew had enough computer savvy and keys to databases Sanzos could access to find out what he might be searching on. Jiroshin was too wary of him to spy, Jikaku was busy right now, and Kanzeon would have laughed in his face and probably flung the blueprints at him for good measure. Which left one.

“You’ve left us scrambling to catch up before,” Hakkai said shamelessly. “And if you really are planning to give SG-1 a way to break out, we’re probably going to be somewhere in the vicinity making sure they don’t break in somewhere else. Such as, say, the larvae ponds. They’ve targeted Goa’uld young in the past.”

That... okay, he _would_ let Hakkai see his wince at that. “I’m a little surprised that upsets you.”

“They aren’t ordinary children,” Hakkai allowed. “But from everything I’ve learned of Kanzeon’s Favored, the Merciful Goddess truly could be considered merciful, by what she does _not_ grant her children.” The monocle gleamed. “Kanan... didn’t speak of her Tsukiyo often. She said the young one was shy, and I think she was telling the truth. But when the soul within did speak to me, Tsukiyo was as eager as any of my students to learn. She _was_ a child, compared to other Goa’uld.”

“You really think Kanzeon edits what her kids remember?” Gojyo said thoughtfully. “Thought that genetic memory was what the whole species thinks makes ‘em special. Why cut bits of it out?”

“For the best reason of all,” Hakkai mused. “For _wonder_. How can you be curious about anything, if you think you already know everything?” He shook his head. “Gonou was never curious. And change - frightened him. When he felt me becoming other, and knew he could not escape....”

Goku surged in and wrapped arms around the man, hugging tight. “He’s gone. You’re okay. You’re going to _be_ okay, Hakkai.”

“What the monkey said,” Gojyo grinned.

_“Who’s the monkey, cockroach?”_

Hakkai caught forks, then a plate, then two bouncing cups, handing each off in turn to Sanzo as their younger pair tried to wrestle each other into submission. Gave them a look over to make sure they didn’t roll too close to the counter where Hakuryuu was snacking on roasted bird, and sighed. “I suppose we are back to normal, at that.”

“No, you’re not,” Sanzo said bluntly, taking advantage of the chaos to grab a few more of the peach slices. “Gojyo probably knows more than I do about post-trauma and rape treatment back on Earth. I know enough of what Koumyou taught me here to know you are _not fine_.” He shrugged, carefully casual. “None of us are fine. But right now you’re a little more messed up than usual. So you damn well come to me if you feel like unraveling, before you go slaughter a couple dozen people who probably deserved it. Because I want to kill something too, and leaving me out is not _sharing_ , Hakkai.”

“Of course.”

Was that a : _giggle_ : behind that quiet smile? Hakkai had damn well better not be giggling. He meant every word of it.

“Hah!” Gojyo pinned Goku to the floor, panting hard. “Still don’t know everything yet, kid.”

“Oh yeah? Wait ‘til I-”

“Now, now,” Hakkai chuckled. “You remember what happened the last time you brought out youkai weapons in the kitchen, don’t you?”

From the way the two idiots froze, and pasted on nervous smiles, they definitely did.

Sanzo sipped his coffee. “Finish up. We’ll be heading out too soon.”

“With the floorplans?” Gojyo scrambled up off the floor and grabbed for his plate-

And stopped, at Hakkai’s wounded look, and washed his hands again first.

“Yes, with the plans,” Sanzo said grimly. “Kanzeon can always plug holes in security after they get out. The Merciful Goddess pushes people to their breaking point, you know that - and we can deal, but the SGC? The Tok’ra have done a lot of damage. One more push might be one too far. So. Let’s give them an out. Kanzeon wants to push, let her push. Just as long as she doesn’t push them into a corner. We know how Ra went up, and I’m not letting Shangri-La get hit the same way.”

“And?” Hakkai said quietly.

Right. Because of course Hakkai could read him well enough to figure out there was an _and_. “The SGC helped the Asgard smash Replicators. They’re wiping out System Lords. They’ve pulled the Tollans into an alliance. They’ve even gotten the Nox talking - the biggest isolationist pacifists in the galaxy. And they’ve done all that in just a few years. Kanzeon’s plans for the future might not have as much give in them as she thinks.”

“You’re worried about her,” Gojyo realized.

“Duh,” Goku sniffed. “Who wouldn’t be? She’s _nice_.”

Gojyo’s eyebrows bounced up. “Right.” He scratched the back of his neck. “Well, why not? Kanzeon definitely beats somebody else taking over the planet. And if we can get them to talk.... Her Hagness doesn’t want Earth. Too crowded. Nowhere to spread youkai or her own people out without running into a billion cranky competitors. Why bother, when she’s got a few empty planets to start opening up once Koushu’s flattened?”

Sometimes he forgot Gojyo wasn’t half as stupid as he liked people to think, Sanzo reflected, poking Goku when the kid tried to inhale potato bits. Always a mistake.

“Her people?” Hakkai said curiously, glance only flickering at Sanzo to remind the man he really should eat. “You mean the kami, and their symbiotes?”

“I mean all of you,” Gojyo said firmly. Hesitated. “Guess that’s all of _us_ , now. Kanzeon’s had fifteen hundred years to let her pet genes get loose in the population. I’ve heard the stories. _Child-giving Kannon_. Pray for a kid, get one, and you know it’ll be different because it’s been touched by the kami. Wouldn’t surprise me if every human on Shangri-La has something a little extra in their DNA by now.”

Hakkai’s hands went very still on his mug. “You think every human on Shangri-La... has youkai DNA?”

“Or kami. Or both,” Gojyo nodded, not letting his gaze leave the healer’s. “Kougaiji’s mom, Rasetsunyo. Legends say she’s got Heavenly ancestry, right? Might explain why the guy can go toe-to-toe with the monkey on a tear, and almost win.”

Interesting thought. And given Kougaiji could teleport as well as Kanzeon herself, not impossible. “We can worry about who’s got which weird ancestors up the family tree later.” Sanzo tapped his notes. “If these are accurate, and I think they are, centuries ago Gyokumen Koushu was....”

* * *

“One of Śakra’s Queens?” Jack didn’t bother hiding a skeptical eyebrow as they all headed toward the temple’s transport ring chamber. _We’re off to see the Goa’uld_ , he hummed under his breath, _the Kanzeon Bosatsu Goa’uld_....

Behind him, Jack heard Sha trying to stifle a cackle.

Fair enough. The guy’d earned a laugh, putting up with Sanzo on a long-term basis. If Jack hadn’t seen Sha fight, he would have sworn there couldn’t be a homicidal bone in the captain’s body, to put up with-

_What that old hellfire parish priest back in Chicago would’ve told you, if you’d ever been dumb enough to walk back through the church doors_ , Jack thought reluctantly. _What Sara tried to tell you_.

Which was why he’d left the faith, and let Sara go, and had the good sense not to walk into a church since. Because nobody, but _nobody_ , could tell him it wasn’t his fault Charlie was dead.

Only Sanzo hadn’t done that. Sanzo had stalked in where everyone else left him to sit in the dark with milk and cookies, yanked down the blinds, slapped him, and told him to _suck it up and walk, soldier_.

It was... different.

_Can’t die, need to shoot Sanzo first_.

It was an oddly cheering thought.

Sanzo tapped his glasses back up, deliberately ignoring Sha with the force of a thousand aggravated suns. “Koushu came to Shangri-La with Śakra almost exactly sixteen centuries ago.” The priest looked over his newest sheaf of translucent pages one more time before he handed them over to Daniel. “She apparently likes to change up her name and duties every few centuries, but some version of the Jade Princess turns up as a constant for seven centuries of Goa’uld bureaucratic bitching.”

Jack had to halt right there in the corridor, no matter how people piled up. Because _ow_. “Are you telling me you waded through seven hundred years of Goa’uld water-cooler gossip?”

“Sanzo has a remarkably high pain tolerance,” Hakkai observed, smile almost chipper. Which was somehow even scarier than the usual air of suppressed mayhem.

“And a good search engine,” Sanzo said dryly, storing his glasses back up his sleeve. Jack was starting to seriously wonder about those sleeves. “Kanzeon shows up about seventy years later. And just a few decades after that, she’s got her Arrangement.”

Aha. Jack knew a clue when someone was dangling it. “Shows up from where?”

“Good question.”

“Jack?” Daniel was glancing between the pair of them, obviously trying to put a finger on exactly what had set both of them into aggravated frowny mode. “I mean, we know Queens mature and then take a host, and it’s not always easy for even the Tok’ra to figure out where they were as prim’ta.”

“Only Hathor was locked up in Central America, so she couldn’t exactly be leaving baby snakes around to grow up,” Jack pointed out. “So... whoever Kanzeon came from is some other lineage, like Amaunet. And that matters, right? The whole genetic memory thing.”

“What matters more is that I can’t find her,” Sanzo said bluntly. “Goa’uld usually attach some kind of divine backstory to their Queens, put in the records so all the lesser Goa’uld know the line to spout when they’re grinding slaves’ heads underfoot. Kanzeon’s - on the surface, it scans. But if you’ve read the Legend of Miaoshan-”

Daniel perked up. “The princess ordered to marry by her father, who managed to get herself into a temple instead, and then executed, only they threw her out of Hell because she was saving everybody?”

“That’s the one.”

“You can get thrown out of Hell?” Jack broke into the geeking, amused. “Nifty. Carter, see what we’ve missed by not burying ourselves to our noses in fairytales?”

Sam smiled, even if it was just a little shaky at bad memories. “I don’t think being nice to people would have gotten us off Netu, sir.”

“Darn.”

Teal’c took a slightly longer stride, bringing him close enough that Jack couldn’t miss the Buddha smile. “I do not think you would make a convincing princess, O’Neill.”

Sha muffled snickers with his sleeve, red eyes dancing. Traded a glance with Goku, who wasn’t even trying to hide the giggles, and snickered harder.

A sigh growled from Sanzo’s throat. “Get it out now, idiots. Before we hit the ring guards. They’re serious about what they believe.”

“So they are,” Hakkai mused, stroking the dragon on his arm. “The presence of a true Sanzo is a sign of divine favor, and a great comfort to them.”

Huh. If Jack hadn’t been watching, he’d have missed that ghost of a shadow of a flinch. _You don’t like messing with someone else’s beliefs. Good to know_. “A little laugh never hurt,” Jack said easily, gauging their distance to said transport rings. One more turn - no, two. “Though if somebody leaves a tiara on my bedroll, I’m going to have to take steps.” He looked between his geek and Kanzeon’s as they kept walking. “So. Miaoshan. Important?”

“Specifically, no,” Sanzo stated. “But it’s emblematic of the kind of stories Kanzeon encourages in her myths. Not the conquering Queen, not Śakra’s anointed heir, not the righteous defender rescuing conquered worlds from false gods’ ignorance. The young goddess who didn’t want to be married off, and had to die to escape what everyone expected, so she could come back and save people from suffering.”

“And Śakra put up with that?” Daniel nudged up his own glasses with a skeptical finger. “I thought the System Lords wanted people to believe their Queens adored them.”

“Temp linguist, remember?” Sanzo cut a glance at him. “I know how to dig into historical records and temple databases. Figuring out System Lords from myths is your specialty-”

“So give him a minute to do that.” Sha knocked a fist against Sanzo’s shoulder. “I hear ruffled priestly feathers ahead. And diplomacy’s your job, right, oh high and heavenly saintly-”

_Click_.

“Just saying,” Sha shrugged, barely glancing at the muzzle almost up his nose.

Growling, Sanzo made the revolver vanish again, and forged ahead like a white shroud of death. Sticking out his tongue at Sha, Goku skipped after him.

“That should give us a minute,” Sha mused, in quiet English. “About some things, Sanzo can be predictable. When he wants to be.” The redhead glanced at Daniel. “Every page only divisible by itself.” His glance skipped back to Jack. “Tell me how Bermuda is this year, if you end up heading that way.”

Oh. And Jack very carefully did not sigh in sudden relief. Because damn. Sha might actually be as good as his record had said he was.

_And Sanzo helped. Huh_.

Hakkai’s monocle glinted. “Bermuda?”

“Tropical paradise!” Sha exulted, switching back to Koryo as if he hadn’t a care in the world. “Tall cold drinks, lovely chicks, sand between your toes-”

“Oh, dear....”

“Yep,” Jack said, half to himself, feeling a lot better about this mess. “Great vacation _getaway_ spot.”

Daniel blinked. Looked at the notes he was carrying. Let out a slow breath, as if he didn’t trust himself to say anything. Sam traded a speaking look with Teal’c, and put on a diplomatic smile to match his amused neutrality.

_Sha and Sanzo gave us a getaway plan. Right in plain sight_. Jack grinned, just as toothy as the dragon. _This is going to be interesting_.

No time to look at it now, though, whatever it was. They were just at the ring-room doors... and Jack doubted it’d be anything as simple as just needing the right pages. And there was no way he was turning Danny and Sam loose on it in front of a bunch of frowning monks and hosts armed for Tau’ri bear.

They walked into a slightly less numerous and hostile welcoming committee than last time. Jikaku was seated on a comfy stool near the earnest shaven monks manning the controls, a cup of tea in one wrinkled hand. “Hmph, youngster. Nobody’s dead yet?”

“The day is young,” Sanzo said dryly.

“Ha! So it is.”

“This is the same set of transport rings,” Sam frowned.

Jack raised one eyebrow. Well, yeah, obvious.

“You can link transport rings to more than one location?”

Oooh. Not so obvious.

“It takes a certain amount of programming knowledge, but it’s more than possible,” Jikaku observed.

And Koryo had a word for _programming_ , even if it sounded like it’d wandered in from Ancient. Which was a Danny-esque thought, or maybe a Carter-esque one; both his science geeks were eyeing the transport ring controls like they wanted to come back with cameras and a crowbar. Of all his team, only Teal’c looked slightly taken aback - which meant the former First Prime of Apophis was doing some serious recalculating of his own. One thing to learn Kanzeon had let her people get to gunpowder. Programming?

_Then again - Kanzeon’s Favored. Want to bet they’re not just healers?_ “So... any of these other places you can program it to include back by the Stargate? So we could drop a note back home?”

“Ah!” Jikaku sipped his tea. “The man puts me in a quandary!”

Sanzo glared at the high priest. It lacked most of the heat Jack had seen him turn on real idiots, but it still rated at least a _‘Ack!’_ on the scale. “Explain.”

“Well, if I said no, I might be lying.” Another patient sip. “If I said yes, I might be implying that the revered and honored Genjyo Sanzo, heir to the Seiten and Maten sutras, beloved of the Merciful Goddess Kanzeon Bosatsu, might have dragged emissaries of another world over hill and dale merely to roust a sluggardly temple into sending aid to a common village assaulted by youkai.” Jikaku eyed the depths of his cup. “Dear me, what to do, what to do....”

Goku muffled giggles behind his wrist bracers. Sha poked him. More than once.

From the not-so-hidden winces and sweating, Jack figured the locals really weren’t used to high priests bantering that way. From the even less hidden looks of resignation... Sanzo had done this a lot.

“Or you could just admit I don’t know where all the rings are,” Sanzo said dryly. “Security.”

Now that, Jack could actually buy. “Just in case you pick up a hitchhiker.”

A gasp from the assembled guards; one of the hosts, Jack realized, seeing the ornaments and non-robe-type blue dress. “Not even the false gods would dare!”

Sanzo cut off her protest with a stern look. “Anybody can be unlucky.” Glanced back at Jack. “Though Kanzeon Bosatsu has stated that any false god who dares to invade the holy body of a Sanzo would regret it. Briefly.” He arched a brow, and nodded toward the console. “Your call.”

Hmm. Update George when they hadn’t done that much yet, or not leave a cranky System Lord waiting? Decisions, decisions.

Then again.... “I think there’s something we both need to check on.”

* * *

“Incoming transmission.” The tech on duty brightened, as the Stargate rippled. “Sir, it’s the colonel!”

_Thank god_. Hammond picked up a headset. “Colonel. Report. How’s the field trip so far?”

“Eh, we’re good, sir.”

Which meant they probably were, the general knew. _‘We’re okay’_ , would have meant they were anything but.

“But we’re on a party line, so let’s keep it brief. Don’t want to run up the bill,” O’Neill went on. “Any word on our unwelcome guest? We’d all kind of like to know if he stayed put. He may have been out of it for a while, but the people he got chained up with are pretty sneaky.”

So Hammond had gathered. “I’ll have a highlights reel waiting when you get back,” he promised. “Jacob seems to think he’ll stay put; moving too often can be lethal, and he thinks our guest is insane, not suicidal. So far Janet’s brought out the extra-strength restraints and grabbed some of Major Carter’s minions to design ballistic throat armor, just in case.”

“Good.”

Sanzo’s voice on the line; Hammond nodded thoughtfully. Apparently Kanzeon’s people respected SG-1 enough to make it obvious when they were listening in. This might work. Maybe. “I sent a message to a mutual small acquaintance.”

“Sir?” And there was no way Jack was even half as innocent as he was trying to sound.

“In short, I mentioned that we’d recently run across evidence that the world we had a joint Tok’ra mission with two years ago was associated with the Asgard,” Hammond went on. “Given that we prefer not to step on our allies’ toes, I asked for some clarification regarding Shangri-La.”

“Oh?” Jack drawled.

“We’re still analyzing some of the reply,” Hammond stated. Which should let his team know they’d gotten a considerable amount of information. Surprising, given their usual interactions with any offworld allies. “In short - apparently at some time in the very distant past, Shangri-La was terraformed. By what race, they wouldn’t say.”

“And this changes things?” Jack said skeptically.

“Actually, it might,” Daniel put in. “An untouched life-bearing planet - we know some people would leave it alone, to the species native to it. But if you made it alive, you’d have a claim on it.”

“That does indeed seem to be the case,” Hammond stated. “In short, Colonel - Kanzeon Bosatsu is recognized by the Asgard as standing _in loco parentis_. So to speak.”

“Do the Tok’ra know that, sir?” Major Carter sounded worried.

“It has been indicated to me that they have been informed,” Hammond said dryly.

“Oh.”

Hammond felt the hairs on the back of his neck twitch. Whenever a certain archaeologist sounded like that, all hell was about to break loose.

“Oh?” Jack pounced.

“I... think I might have an idea,” Daniel said cautiously. “But I need to do some research, first.”

“You mind sharing that research, if you get a chance?” Sanzo said grimly. “I’d like to know why I’m shooting people.”

“I, um... really think I need to ask Kanzeon, first,” Daniel stated. “Because if I’m right - I really hope I’m not right, but if I am....”

“She might not want us to know?” Sanzo sounded almost _amused_. “It’s your negotiations, Dr. Jackson. Go for it. If it causes havoc, I’m sure she’ll be laughing up her sleeve if you do tell us.”

“In regard to those negotiations, Dr. Jackson, Colonel,” Hammond said formally. “We’ve been informed that the Asgard would not at all object if the SGC and Earth came to nonhostile terms with Kanzeon Bosatsu and her worlds.”

“Really.” Jack sounded thoroughly intrigued. “Okay, this is one System Lady I’ve got to meet.”

“General Hammond.” Teal’c sounded just as curious, when you read past the practiced calm. “I would be most interested to read the contents of that reply.”

“I’m looking forward to all of you getting the chance, later,” Hammond stated. “As it stands, though, SG-1, you have an official go.”

“Thank you, sir,” Jack said courteously.

“Oh,” Hammond said, as if he’d almost forgotten. “That scorecard you wanted, Colonel? Ten for ten on the first round.” A deliberate pause. “And a wipeout on the second.”

“And here I was rooting for the home team,” Jack said, almost lightly. “Well, there’s always the next game. Good luck, sir. SG-1, out.”

The Stargate winked out, wormhole evaporating as if it’d never been there.

“Scorecard, sir?” The technician frowned.

“A private joke, Sergeant Brent,” Hammond said easily. “Let’s just say, the colonel won a round off me this time. Fortunately, Dr. Fraiser will be splitting the expense.”

The general waited until he’d walked out of the control booth to rub at a headache. Janet was going to be chewing nails and spitting tacks, that Jack’s impromptu “is he or isn’t he” had actually given the SGC tangible results.

_DNA can be altered. But even identical twins don’t have the same_ fingerprints.

Altered DNA or not, Sha Gojyo’s fingerprints still matched those in Captain Joseph Sha’s records. But compare Genjyo Sanzo’s to those of Dr. Kouryuu Genjyo’s....

_He doesn’t know. What on earth did Kanzeon do? And how does he not know?_

Well. It was Jack’s problem now. Hammond sighed, and headed for the aspirin.

* * *

_They love her_ , Sam thought, trying not to flinch as the eight of them plus a dragon gathered inside the rings. _They love her, and I... Jolinar hated her_.

And she didn’t even know why.

_Deep breaths, Sam. Focus on the mission. You’re an Air Force major. It doesn’t matter if you hate her guts. Just carry out the mission._

Only it did matter, because the hate was inside her, twisting her gut, making it hard to look even at the transport ring tech being fiddled with right in front of her. And that made Sam hate both of them, Jolinar and Kanzeon alike, because whatever private war the Tok’ra had going on with this Queen, they’d dragged her into it, and she’d never, ever be free of them-!

“Major Carter.” Teal’c’s hand rested on her shoulder, dark eyes calmly worried. “All will be well. We are here.”

Sam straightened as the rings came down, determined. Right. Her team. She wouldn’t let them down.

And if Jolinar’s memories pushed her toward something stupid, she knew Teal’c would stop her.

The world blazed into energy, and they were elsewhere.

_Not a ha’tak_.

Sam drew in a breath of outdoor air no spaceship could fake, warm breezes carrying scents of ponds and flowers in with the sunlight spilling through open windows into this grand stone hall. Polished, gold-veined pale marble; brilliant tapestries; vases and works of delicate art in alcoves along the far wall, with benches obviously meant to relax on and look in or out as desired. The contingent of guards ready to meet them were carrying zats and longswords, dressed not in a Jaffa’s metallic armor, but black leather greatcoats with the white-and-black yin-yang of the Heavenly Army on their shoulder patches. They weren’t ranged into quite the nasty crossfire SG-1 had met in the temple, but they were formed up in good order... with looks that made her blink, and try to stuff Jolinar’s hate away.

_That’s not arrogance. That’s curiosity. What the heck? Goa’uld are a lot of things, but not curious_ -

And then her brain kind of hiccupped, taking in the white-scaled... humanoid leading them.

_A youkai? But youkai have hair, not scales... only he has hair too, even if it’s kind of purple, and those horns... and he’s dressed in the same uniform, so he’s part of Kanzeon’s army too. I think_.

The look of not quite hidden curiosity definitely matched, if she was reading red eyes right. And then he looked over Sanzo’s group-

And froze. Just for a heartbeat.

_Why?_

“I am Goujun, Dragon General of the Western Sea.” His voice thrummed, like standing in the control room above the Gate when it was spinning. Red eyes skimmed over them all again, halting on Hakkai for a long moment before fixing on Sanzo with a sort of bewildered shock. Reluctantly he tore his gaze away, and looked the colonel straight in the eye. “Colonel O’Neill. Genjyo Sanzo. The Merciful Goddess has no patience for court formalities today. She requests that you all meet her in the eastern gardens, so we may enjoy the sunlight.”

The colonel traded a look with Sanzo. “I’m good with sun,” Jack shrugged. “But....”

“No _buts_ I know about,” Sanzo started.

Goku latched onto his right arm, and gave the dragon general an oddly piercing look. “Why are you staring at Sanzo?”

Goujun gave the young youkai a careful once-over, something softening in his gaze. “I’m... certain it’s nothing as important as your meeting, Son Goku. Shall we, Colonel?”

“We shall,” Jack declared just as graciously, following Goujun’s lead as the dragon and half the soldiers started down the hall. “So. You know these guys?”

“I am not often in the East,” Goujun stated. “I am certain I would remember such... unique individuals.”

_Ooo, irony alert_ , Sam could almost hear Jack snark in her head.

“I _have_ read the reports,” Goujun went on.

_And he can do dry sarcasm, too!_

Sam tried to hide a shudder, not sure if it was humor or hysteria. “You’re a host.”

She could almost feel Sanzo’s sigh.

The worst of it was that he had every right to. This was supposed to be a _diplomatic mission_.

_Well, yeah, so was Leia Organa’s_ , Jack had said about other missions-gone-tilted. _We know how that went. I blame the cinnabun hairstyle. Asking to get eaten_.

“I am a dragon.” Goujun sounded wryly amused. “It is not quite the same for one of my people as it is for yours.”

_Yeah. Right_.

“Dragon-folk or not, you look like a man faced with one of the Goddess’ practical jokes,” Sanzo observed. “Is all well with the dragons beyond the Western Sea?”

“The Heavenly Army’s air and sea patrols are keeping Gyokumen Koushu’s forces at bay, for now,” Goujun stated. “The Goddess believes we are currently immune to the zatarc broadcasts, but some of our merchants who have ventured to the East have recently gone missing.”

Hakkai’s gaze went hard. “Koushu has them.”

“It is likely, Fi-” Goujun cleared his throat. “Demon-slayer Cho. We are gravely concerned.”

_You’re not the only ones_. Sam shoved past _he’s a host, they’re all hosts_ , to focus on what was important.

_There’s a whole other sentient race here on Shangri-La. One nobody mentioned. What else don’t we know?_

“Are your people related to the Unas?” Daniel asked.

“My ancestors were, Dr. Jackson,” Goujun said politely. “But for the past fourteen centuries, we have been the dragon-folk of Shangri-La. The Unas would be more... distant cousins, by now.”

“You said _my_ ,” Sam couldn’t help but break in. “Who are we talking to?”

Damn it! She shouldn’t have said that. She _knew_ she shouldn’t have. She was an Air Force officer, she was an experienced interplanetary negotiator, she’d been in tight spots with lots of naquadah jangling at her before. She _knew better_.

But it’d been open mouth, disengage brain. Or rather, the parts of her brain that were kicking in were all her, dipped in an acid that wanted to _hurt_ , not think. Because these were Kanzeon’s-

_Wait. They’re Goa’uld. How do I know they’re_ Kanzeon’s?

... _They’re not pushing at me enough_.

Eerie, but true. Goa’uld, Tok’ra, or Jaffa, she was used to a certain level of prickling in her nerves from the levels of naquadah in their system. Or in the symbiote’s system, in the case of Jaffa.

Kanzeon’s Goa’uld were whispers to a Tok’ra’s naquadah shout. And that mismatch of number of people and level of prickle was dumping fear and hate into her bloodstream; Jolinar’s memories reacting to _not my people_.

_No_ , Sam told herself firmly. _They’re not my people. But I don’t know they’re enemies. Yet_.

Crimson eyes glanced at her, and kept walking. “Among my people, Major Carter, that might be considered rude. I am a dragon. And I have been in the service of the Merciful Goddess a very long time.” A low rumble, not quite a growl. “I am not a scientist. I can’t tell you how it works.” Another raking glance. “One in the grip of other-memories is unlikely to be listening in any case.”

“General.” And that was the colonel’s _do not screw with my team_ smile.

“I’m afraid this may be my fault, Colonel,” Hakkai said ruefully. “Given what happened years ago... well, all Kanzeon’s generals would have that report on the Tok’ra. I have a rather unfortunate reputation.”

“Yeah,” Sha drawled. “ _Thousand-Slayer_ is the kind of name that gets noticed.”

Hakkai smiled, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, as if someone had accused him of over-boiling the tea. “I really wasn’t paying attention.”

“The hell you weren’t.” Sanzo almost sounded amused.

“Tek’mateh Bra’tac would say you engage in false modesty, Cho Hakkai,” Teal’c agreed. “To succeed in such a mission without aid would have taken great skill, caution, and planning.”

“See, Hakkai? He gets it!” Goku was grinning, face lit up in relief. “So you’ve been with the Goddess a long time, Goujun? What’s that like? Do you get to shoot at her like Sanzo does?”

“Wait, _shoot_ at her?” Daniel sputtered.

“She was being annoying,” Sanzo stated. “Again.”

“Does everybody in the palace get robes like Sanzo does?” Goku plowed on. “’Cause it’s really useful that everything washes off those, blood gets everywhere, but it makes some of the monks say it’s a sign of holiness and Sanzo’s not going to shoot all of them, even if they are being silly.... Do the scales itch?”

Sam let the questions wash over her, soothing some of her jangled nerves. Because that was pure teenage curiosity, like Cassie. She’d fought her way back from Jolinar for Cassie. She could fight her way back now.

_I’m not going to let you down, sir. No matter what it takes_.

* * *

For someone who supposedly had the planet’s worst black thumb, Jack thought, either Kanzeon had learned something in nine centuries, or she’d blackmailed a good gardener. The sun-drenched greenery was beautiful. Roses and multicolored pitcher-plant-like vines climbed over trellises and up into fruit trees. A few dragons like Hakuryuu swooped through the air; a rainbow of warm browns, reds, and just about every other color on the spectrum fur never was on Earth. Ponds chuckled with the flow of mini-waterfalls, lotuses blooming pink and blue over wide green pads of leaves that covered most of the water, leaving only a few gaps where scaled forms appeared and vanished in a swish of fins.

Given Sanzo’s little comment about larvae and lotus ponds, Jack decided SG-1 was going to keep their distance.

Goujun kept to one of the mossy green paths, boots silent as SG-1 on a sneaky day. Stopped just before a turn in the path around a granite boulder the size of a small office building, and took an obviously bracing breath.

“Dragon General.” Teal’c was listening intently. “I hear children.”

“Yes, you do.” Goujun narrowed his gaze at Sanzo, and growled - an actual _growl_ \- under his breath. “I blame you.”

Sanzo glanced at his team, and waved at himself, one skeptical blond brow raised.

“They’re little terrors,” Goujun _hmph_ ed. “Tiny, fragile, clawed - they can poke right through leather if they’re determined - they like to _climb_ on me.”

Jack was not going to break out laughing. Nope. “Are you... kitten-sitting?”

“Youkai are not _kittens_ ,” Goujun growled. “Although the habit of getting stuck in trees seems endemic to both.”

“You have youkai children here?” Daniel tilted his head toward the faint sounds of young voices. “Why?”

Goku was sniffing the air, eyes widening. “It’s - they smell like-!”

And he was off, that impossible staff appearing out of thin air just long enough for him to vault _over_ the boulder.

“Hey Donghua!” echoed back past stone. “It’s me, Goku!”

“Damn it, monkey... wait.” Sha blinked, and looked at the two who hadn’t taken off. “Did he say Donghua?”

“The Hua sisters?” Hakkai’s eyes were wide, and somehow a little fragile. “It worked?”

“What worked?” Jack said carefully. Very, very carefully, because the look on Sanzo’s face had some of that rare haunted worry Jack had seen in the infirmary, when Goku had promised to duck.

“Of course it worked.” Goujun’s rumble was oddly gentle. “The Merciful Goddess is very good at catching souls. And you called her swiftly enough to get clean cell samples. Though they are... still very young.”

“Catching souls?” Sam looked a little pale.

Sha eyed her, then poked Sanzo in the shoulder. “You two go on ahead and say hi to the ladies. And don’t forget to give them the sugar buns you picked up to bribe Lirin with. I’ll explain.”

“To Lirin?” Sanzo bit out.

_Wound tighter than a watch-spring_ , Jack concluded. _Who are these kids?_

“No, to them.” Sha jerked a thumb at SG-1, then looked straight at Goujun. “That okay, sir? I know Kanzeon likes to see people trip over themselves, but this is a _lot_ to take in for people who don’t grow up believing in transmigration.”

Goujun blinked at that, scaled and swift as a Komodo dragon. “They... _don’t_ believe that on Earth? How odd.” Settling himself back into calm with a shrug, he bowed to Sanzo. “Honored Sanzo. Demon-slayer. If you would.”

“I am curious,” Hakkai murmured. Glanced at Sanzo, green eyes warm with sympathy. “Why don’t we go meet them? I’m sure it’ll be alright.”

The blond moved then, like breaking out of knee-deep ice. Bowed back to Goujun, and silently followed.

Sha waited for the three of them plus one eager white dragon to be out of sight before he whistled. “Okay. Real quick briefing time, I had _no_ idea we’d run into this - Colonel. Minute we go around this rock, you are going to run right into the one and only time Sanzo screamed for _divine intervention_.” He dusted off his hands. “And got it. Freaked the hell out of me.”

Jack raised a skeptical brow.

“Kanzeon’s allowed to interfere with a Sanzo.” Daniel straightened. “What happened?”

Sha’s nostrils flared, red eyes almost lava-hot with what looked like old, old rage. “Koushu is a nasty, bio-manipulating _bitch_.”

“Once more, with details,” Jack said patiently. This he knew. This was a soldier who’d seen something that _should not be_ , and still woke up with nightmares from it. “Just the important ones. In case we run into that sterling example of Goa’uld bitchiness.”

“God, I hope not,” Sha breathed. “Long story short. The Hua sisters... we met them on the road. Four lovely ladies. Shunhua, Xiahua - my Lady Luck - shy lady Quihua, and bouncy little Donghua. They were youkai, but wearing limiters, and they had stuff to weaken their scent, and... anyway. Koushu. Hit them with a kind of - sentient cancer-thing.” Fingers curled into fists, and back out. “It told them it’d leave if it got us instead. Of course it was lying. They... came close. But then they said no. So it took them over and made them attack us.” Sha stopped there, for a long moment. “Sanzo had them pinned with the sutra. Hakkai... he tried, but there was nothing he could _do_. It took over their internal organs. They were going to die. It was going to _eat_ them, swallow up their minds so it was the only thing left. Only choice was fast or slow.” He huffed out a breath. “Sanzo shot them all.”

Daniel sucked in air, like he’d been gut-punched. Jack couldn’t blame him. “And?”

“And then he screamed,” Sha said flatly. “And Kanzeon... appeared. Right there on the hillside. No rings. No ‘Gate. She was just _there_.”

_A Goa’uld Queen can teleport. Oh, the day keeps getting better_. “She doesn’t have a sarcophagus,” Jack pointed out.

Sha shook his head. “What she’s got, is a lab to grow clones. And the tech to... damn, I don’t know how to science it up for you. She can catch minds and souls. That’s what she did for the Huas. They weren’t zatarcs, they had their minds, she could-” His voice hitched. “She could save them. Keep their minds until the bodies were grown up enough, then put stuff back.”

“Why would she do that?” Sam said quietly. “Just because Sanzo asked?”

“If you think that’s a _just_ , you don’t know Sanzo yet.” Sha dug his fingers into his hair, pulled them through as if he meant to yank his emotions into line right with red strands. “Anyway. You ask her, she’ll probably laugh it off and say she owed them. Got her own sample of that nasty, came up with a vaccine for it so Koushu can’t pull that twice. But Sanzo asked her for a fucking miracle and she _gave it to him_.”

Jack nodded, a silent _I hear you_. Because right now he had no clue what to say. Earth didn’t get miracles....

_Focus on the mission_ , the colonel told himself. _You were wondering about Sanzo. Now, you’ve got your answer._

_And you know Kanzeon doesn’t fight fair_.

Jack gathered his team with a look, and headed around the rock.

Even half-expecting it, seeing Sanzo sitting on the grass with a pointy-eared violet-haired kid and a book on his lap was jarring. Like watching a bunch of Marines in full kit explaining the fine points of baseball to local urchins. Which, granted, Jack had seen, so.

Goku was tumbling around with an even smaller auburn-haired tyke, the pair of them growling like puppies. Cho Hakkai had gained a flower crown from a small brunette who ducked her head against his shoulder when she saw strangers coming. And a blonde woman in a blue blouse and dress looked straight at Sha with unmixed sisterly delight, juggling an active redheaded kid who grinned at the captain like he was a bag of candy. “Gojyo!” the blonde called out. “It’s so good to see you again!”

“Shunrei?” Sha sounded surprised; luckily not in a bad way. “What’re you doing up here?” He crossed the distance between them in a few long strides, scratching the kid behind the ears. “Hey, little lady. You doing okay?” He glanced back at Shunrei. “Is Jien-?”

“There’s still no word. But I have hope.” The blonde straightened, determined as any military wife. “Our priest said the Merciful Goddess wanted someone she could trust to raise orphan cubs. And, since Jien and I do want children....”

“Thought you’d get in some practice, huh? Good for you.” Sha glanced back at SG-1. “Colonel, Major, Doctor, Teal’c - this is Shunrei. Her fiancé’s... missing. She gave us a hand once. We’ve been looking for the guy since.” He glanced around. “So where is Her Hagness, anyway?”

“Gojyo!” Shunrei had to hand him the little girl, cheeks pink as she tried not to laugh. “You’re awful!”

“I don’t know about that.” A rich, deep woman’s voice, as a brunette in familiar translucent robes and sun-disk stepped out of rose-shadows. “At least he’s honest.”

“Kanzeon Bosatsu, I presume,” Jack said lightly. _And... here we go_.

“From what I’ve heard, Colonel, you usually do.” Kanzeon arched a sculpted brow at him, then nodded at Goujun. “Are my arrangements acceptable, General?”

“No,” the dragon growled. “But they are sufficient.”

“Ow. You worry too much!” The Queen smiled at him like sunlight through a break in the clouds. “After all, Sanzo is an excellent shot.”

“Hmph.”

“And which side do you think I’d be shooting?” Sanzo said dryly.

“Whichever one seemed like the best for Shangri-La, of course.” Kanzeon placed a hand on the redheaded girl’s hair, then stepped away. “Colonel. I have a suggestion. You want private negotiations so we can all scream at each other without losing face. My people want me safe. So....” She pointed down the garden clearing to an arc of chairs and a table with glasses and a pitcher on it, almost a football-field length away. “We stay in sight of my people, which makes them happy. We stay out of earshot, which makes you happy. You have your team, and your weapons; I have Goujun. And other defenses.”

Jack chewed on that, and gave Daniel a frank look. “What do you think?”

“I think it sounds... a lot like something General Hammond would approve of,” Daniel said cautiously.

_Yeah. Was thinking that myself_. Which was kind of creepy. Since when did System Lords give as much consideration to everybody keeping their dignity as Hammond? “One thing, before we get started,” Jack said bluntly. Because it was a good plan, but it was _Kanzeon’s_ plan, meaning he had to get the shoe back on the other foot before they really got into it. “Do you have a cure for zatarcs? Because I’ve got to tell you, knowing if you disappear for a few minutes you might be a time bomb, is freaking the hell out of the SGC _and_ the Tok’ra. I’m willing to bet that’s part of why they’re being so... pushy.”

“I don’t have a cure. Yet,” Kanzeon said, just as blunt. “I _have_ been able to disable the suicide compulsions.”

“So they have to be locked up, or they’ll still hurt people,” Daniel said quietly.

“And locking up a youkai is a lot harder than locking up a human,” Kanzeon acknowledged. “Still, it gives them a chance, while my people work on unraveling how the programming twists the mind and memory. There is one thing we’re fairly certain of. Based on how Koushu’s used it here, and reports from other worlds - it’s not Goa’uld technology. It’s one of a limited number of devices, originally found by the System Lords associated with Apophis. If we can find one, we’d be a major step ahead in figuring out how to reverse it.”

“Of course, if we find one, then you have something that can do zatarc programming,” Jack pointed out.

“That is a sticking point, isn’t it?” Kanzeon waved toward the waiting chairs. “Shall we?”

Why not. It was a nice sunny day, and he didn’t want to argue around a bunch of kittens. Kids. Whatever.

Cool drinks, a very nice-looking snake lady leaning on a divan to stare at, and plenty of ammo if he felt so inclined. Jack kicked back in his chair in the center of SG-1’s arc, and raised his brow. Where to even start? Youkai, Goku, whatever the hell a kami was, just what she’d done to a lost member of the SGC-

“So.” Daniel wet his lips. “How many of the Asgard know you’re a Tok’ra?”

... _What_.

Kanzeon smiled.

* * *

“...It’s really quiet over there,” Gojyo muttered, shuffling cards for Xinghua’s eager eyes.

_Yes, it is_. “We leave them alone,” Sanzo declared. Quietly. Shunhua and Donghua were asleep on his sleeve, tangled together in the boneless way Goku had pulled off when he was younger. “Unless there’s gunshots. Or screaming.”

Holding a ball of chi so Quihua could poke it and try her own sparks, Hakkai raised a brow. “They are speaking to the Merciful Goddess.”

Sanzo rolled his eyes. “So explosions _and_ screaming.”

Hakkai nodded thoughtfully. “Do you think mental trauma will count as grievous harm to a negotiating party?”

“Naaaaah,” Gojyo grinned. “The SGC would be screwed if it did. We cause mental trauma just by existing.”

Helping Shunrei clear up some of the snacks, Goku chuckled; then scowled at the redhead. “Wait. You mean SG-1, or us?”

Gojyo and Hakkai traded a look, then both grinned at their younger clan member. “...Yes?” Hakkai said brightly.

Sanzo hid his smile behind his fan. _Idiots. But they’re my idiots_.

* * *

_Okay_ , Daniel thought, heart beating fast. _We’re all still alive. That’s... good?_

Goujun was standing behind Kanzeon like an annoyed mountain, red eyes watchful. But so far, the dragon was silent.

“SG-1’s reputation is well-deserved, I see,” Kanzeon mused. “May I ask what led you to that conclusion, Dr. Jackson? Because for several centuries, the System Lords have missed it entirely.”

“They didn’t have the chance to watch a Tok’ra _not_ be surprised by finding a Tok’ra gene pattern in a symbiote from your world.” Daniel kept his voice steady. “Or to hear the Arrangement, I’d bet. In the original Goa’uld, before you probably rephrased it for Śakra and everyone else. I’d bet you told them it applied to _you_. That’s how I translated it. But Goa’uld’s... a lot slipperier than I realized, the first few years I dealt with it. There’s a you that’s _you_ , specific, as an individual - and there’s a you that’s you _and your genetic lineage_.”

Sam stiffened in her chair. “Wait. You mean-”

“If Kanzeon Bosatsu is of Egeria’s lineage,” Teal’c rumbled, “then the Tok’ra may argue that they have the rights to claim this... Arrangement.”

“’Course, possession being nine-tenths of the law, and all that,” Jack said lightly, “that’d only stick if you were dead. Am I right?” He picked up his glass, and took a deliberate sip. “You know, I could punch Selmak right now. He might have said this was a family fight.”

Teal’c had that careful stillness that meant he was ready to whip out the staff weapon and start blasting. Sam was deathly pale, looking between Jack and Kanzeon as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

_That’s fair_ , Daniel thought, feeling a bit pale himself. _I’m not sure I believe it. And I said it_.

“There’s no way you could have known, Major Carter,” Kanzeon said frankly. “Jolinar was from a much younger brood, and the High Council decided almost as soon as they took hosts that my existence... wasn’t something the Tok’ra as a whole needed to know about. Deep-cover agents can be so embarrassing if something goes wrong.”

“Goes wrong?” Sam got out. “You’re a System Lord!”

“Funny how that worked out,” Kanzeon smirked. “How is it you Earth-born like to start your stories? A long time ago, on a planet far, far away....”

* * *

With the first breath in her host, came purpose.

_You are born to be a Queen. To be the one Goa’uld the System Lords never suspect, and can never afford to lose._

_I have given you trickery, stealth, and cunning. I have given you life. You will use them all to aid our cause, and destroy the System Lords!_

* * *

“Well, that worked for a few centuries,” Kanzeon recounted. “I got in, did my little court dances, looked pretty and pliable and just intelligent enough to stay one step ahead of any plot to assassinate me. Oh, the System Lords I enticed knew I was of Egeria’s lineage, yes... but Egeria was a Queen for thousands of years before she had her ‘taking over other races is wrong’ meltdown. So just being one of hers won’t get you killed. As long as you’re careful to fudge the records. And all I had to do to pull it off was cripple my children’s memories, so they had no clue I was Tok’ra.”

_All_. Daniel swallowed hard. “Egeria... was a Queen for...?”

“A Queen for Ra, and a System Lord in her own right, for over ten thousand years,” Kanzeon stated. “I’m not sure how much of that most Tok’ra actually know. _I_ had to know, to pass as an untouched Queen. But it’s possible they don’t.” She tapped her fingertips together, dark eyes condensing centuries of memory. “As I said, everything was going to plan. And then I had an opportunity to move into Śakra’s court here on Shangri-La. Because even then I was known for having a gift for interpreting alien tech and DNA... and Śakra had found some here. An odd little repository. A cache, of sorts; at this point, I’d guess that it was the equivalent of just a little emergency getaway for a very... odd pair of individuals. Someplace they could get away from the rest of the lab, mess around, and do a little gene-tweaking between snuggles.”

“The _rest_ of the lab,” Jack pounced. “As in, a lab you didn’t tell Śakra about?”

“Honestly, it took me a few decades to find the place, even when I was pretty sure I’d deciphered the love-notes correctly,” Kanzeon shrugged. “But I did find it. And inside were....” Her voice softened. “Wonderful things.”

_Wonderful things_. Daniel closed his eyes a moment, remembering that first picture ever taken of Tutankhamen’s hidden tomb. Even in black and white, it was enough to stop your heart. “Not weapons.”

“No. Something even more critical,” Kanzeon said soberly. “Dr. Jackson. What’s the one element the entire Goa’uld Empire can’t do without?”

Daniel winced, and waved it over to Sam. _I should have known, Goa’uld only care about things_....

“Naquadah,” Sam said grimly. “Everything runs on it.”

“Yes. And Queens need a fair portion of it, to pass along to every larvae,” Kanzeon stated. “Otherwise, the few who earn their own hosts can’t activate any of our tech. The _very few_. Think of it! Naquadah used on thousands of larvae to produce just a few Goa’uld! Every year, for thousands of years. It’s _inefficient_.”

“You were trying to shorten your supply lines,” Jack said thoughtfully. “How?”

“By going back to how Goa’uld technology - stolen technology - was originally activated,” Kanzeon stated. “Not with naquadah. By energy manipulation. That’s how the Ancients did it.” She paused. “The Ancients, and a few others they worked with. Because if the Asgard have told you anything, Colonel, then you know the Ancients used to be part of a multi-species alliance. That’s what I found on Shangri-La. A lab, a collaborative facility, where two very different species came together to create something to reshape dead worlds to life.”

“The Tenchi Kaigen scriptures,” Daniel breathed, facts falling into place. “That’s why the text doesn’t look like written Ancient. It’s Ancient with _something else_.”

“It is,” Kanzeon agreed. “Though given they nearly killed me the first time I touched them, I stayed away from those for a long, long time. I was much more interested in the DNA samples, and the bodies. Ancient bodies, put into stasis for medical research. And... some bodies of the other species, as well, for the same purpose. Once I started deciphering the biotech and historical information in the records....” Her smile was eager as Sam’s about to pounce new tech. “I had a solution, ready for the taking. All I had to do was integrate the right genes into host bodies, and the larvae wouldn’t have to have _any_ naquadah. Oh, they’d still have a trace, we can’t get it all out of our systems. But a Queen’s requirements would go down by a factor of several _thousand_. That, was something I could take to Śakra. To raise my status in the court, and possibly even find favor with Ra himself; Egeria always did want him taken out most of all. And humans think dealing with _their_ exes is awful.” She took a breath that did interesting things to transparent silk. “Then I found the lower levels, with the emergency stasis chambers. And Thor showed up.”

* * *

_I’m about to die. Right here, right now_.

Kanzeon clutched her zat and glared at the little gray enemy with his knowing black eyes, ignoring the ribbon device tucked into her girdle. Even if the Asgard Supreme Commander didn’t have countermeasures, concussive force would be far too damaging to throw around in a chamber full of life-support devices. She hated the idea of even using a zat’ni’catel, one shock in the wrong place could be fatal... but she had the right to fight for her life. And she was _not_ going to roll over and die here, not when the Asgard had just left these _children_ to linger alone for untold centuries....

“You wish the individuals here to survive.” Black eyes blinked, slow and languid. “Why?”

“Because they deserve the chance!” Kanzeon snarled. Why bother lying to a telepath? “Because I’ve seen the records; what they are, what they can do. They’re fierce and wild and _beautiful_ , and if I could see them back in the universe again....”

_I want us to be wild. I want us to be free. I want my children to live, not suffer as pawns in Egeria’s revenge!_

The Asgard almost flinched from the force of that. Odd.

“There are... reasons, we have not removed the young from stasis,” Thor declared. “I believe we have matters to discuss.”

* * *

“Long story very short?” Kanzeon summed up. “The young of that species are dangerously empathic. They need a parent to bond to while they grow up and learn how to shield, or they risk going crazy. The Asgard can’t do it. They physically _can’t_. They may be impressive telepaths, but massive emotional upset isn’t something they can handle. Goa’uld and humans, though... we’re incredibly emotional. We can do it.” She paused. “Or, we can with a little tweaking.”

Daniel swallowed hard, seeing the edges of just what must have happened nine centuries ago. “Konzen Douji.”

“My little aggravated angel.” Kanzeon’s smile was wistfully fond. “He was centuries of work, you know. Designing the kami took _time_. Even more time than creating the youkai, or the dragons; they were just human and Other, Unas and Other. My kami, though... a bit of Ancient for the shiny psychokinesis and supposed intelligence, a bit more of my little sleepers for _their_ shiny variety of energy manipulation, empathy, and the no-nonsense killer instincts, and a fair amount of human so they had social bonding and plain old common sense.” She pointed at Jack. “That’s a very rare trait in the universe, and if you ever hit the point where someone suggests designing it out of your species, _just say no_.”

Jack snorted a laugh.

“It took time, but it was worth every minute,” Kanzeon reflected. “Because I was right. With the DNA added to our hosts, we didn’t need naquadah anymore. I could reduce how much I took in, there was less in my larvae... and then something amazing happened.” Elegant fingers gestured to a nearby pond, where a snakelike head had surfaced for just a moment before diving out of sight. “They started playing.”

“They... what?” Daniel got out. Because he’d seen larvae in the tanks, squirming like parasitic worms, and all they were was _menace_ -

“They started playing,” Kanzeon repeated, very quietly. “They started acting like _sentient children_ , Dr. Jackson. Not parasitic monsters. And I... I felt like I had woken from a very bad dream. The Tok’ra think the sarcophagus sucks the good out of our souls, and they’re right. But it’s not just the sarcophagus. It’s the godsdamned _naquadah_.”

Daniel stared at her, feeling the world want to flip-flop sideways. A Goa’uld who hated what they were. Really hated it; not just tried to get around it, like the Tok’ra had.

_She hated it, and she did something about it_.

“But... the lower naquadah levels....” Sam looked over at Jack. “Sir, I think that’s what’s setting the Tok’ra off. What sets Jolinar off. Kanzeon’s Goa’uld... don’t _feel_ right.”

“So I found out,” Kanzeon nodded, eyes cold. “The hard way.”

Daniel winced. “Konzen.”

“The situation as a whole was... a great deal more complicated,” Kanzeon stated, looking into distant memories. “But in short - one of the requests the Asgard had was for my silence about exactly what I was doing. So the Tok’ra only knew that I was keeping secrets and technology they wanted from them, and that Konzen had adopted one of my youkai. A very dangerous one, and one that might put me into an advantageous position with Śakra. So - they took steps.”

“Kanzeon Bosatsu,” Teal’c put in levelly. “If the Asgard wish you to keep this classified, why would you reveal it to the SGC now?”

“Because I need your help as much as you need mine, before the Tok’ra spread word of Shangri-La to System Lords with very old memories.” Kanzeon’s smile was bittersweet. “Four races, allied against the Goa’uld. Three you’ve met, or found traces of: the Asgard, the Ancients, the Nox. What haven’t you found?”

_No_. Daniel jerked his head toward Sanzo’s team; close enough to see, not close enough to hear. _No way_.

“Son Goku,” Kanzeon said, very quietly. “He’s one of those children I found, so long ago, hidden away by their parents from some horrible calamity. He’s the key to - well. Everything.” She took a breath, and spread open hands. “Son Goku is a Furling.”

* * *

“Are you doing okay up here, Shunrei?” Gojyo put mini-Xinghua into the pile of fluffy blankets with her sister Quihua, then carefully helped Goku pry Sanzo’s pair off his sleeve. After all, SG-1 had been talking with Kanzeon way past the time it would have taken Sanzo to start shooting at her. If someone did start shooting, Sanzo would hate to wake the little kids up by dumping them off.

_Softie_ , Gojyo thought fondly. _Idiot Temple monks. You want Sanzo not shooting things, dump a grade school on him_. “I mean, we’ve only been up here a couple of times,” he went on. _And I was scared out of my gourd half the time. Hundreds of kami, most of ‘em with symbiotes - yeep_. “It’s really different from Chang’an, and it’s got to be way different from your village-”

A breeze tickled his nose, and his train of thought derailed. “You smell different.”

_Oh hell. Let the ground open up and swallow me, right now_.

But she did. Still like Shunrei, but different. Like a blooming lemon tree smelled different from a wisteria.

And from the looks on Hakkai and Goku’s faces Gojyo caught out of the corner of his eye, they’d noticed before he did.

The blonde blushed. “The Merciful Goddess... she said, if we can find Jien, it might take a long time to cure him.” She looked up, blue eyes daring. “I wanted that time.”

_Damn, she really does love the guy_ , Gojyo reflected. Put two and two together, after a second glance at Hakkai’s unruffled calm and Goku’s shy smile. “She made you a kami?”

“It was hard,” Shunrei said softly. “She said it would be. But I’m here, and when we find Jien I’ll be able to help heal him. See?” A frown of fierce concentration on her face, Shunrei held her palms close together, in a very familiar pose.

The energy was weak and flickering, but the sphere of chi was unmistakable.

“Kyuu!” Hakuryuu flew over to take a closer look, whiskers carefully far away enough to avoid being singed.

_Hot damn_ , Gojyo exulted. _Next idiot youkai who tries to hit on her is going to get one nasty surprise_.

And part of him knew that probably wasn’t what the SGC would call a normal reaction. After all, here was someone who’d been human, who wasn’t anymore. He ought to be upset. Angry. Maybe even terrified.

_Oh, come on. Scared of Shunrei? I’d be scared of the monkey first. I like strong women. Heck, I like being_....

Gojyo blinked, and was glad he was already sitting down.

His own pain in the ass blond glared at him, violet eyes just maybe creased with a hint of worry. “Something wrong?”

“Nope, nothing wrong,” Gojyo said easily. _Spooky mindreading priest. Don’t bug me_. “Just thinking.”

“Ha!” Goku waved taunting fingers at him. “Thought I smelled something burning.”

“Eh, I’ll roughhouse with _you_ later,” Gojyo waved him off. “We’re watching Kanzeon, remember?”

“So we are,” Hakkai said easily, shifting his shoulder as Hakuryuu landed. “But while we’re here... Shunrei, let me show you how to modulate the flow a bit.”

“Oh would you?” Energy vanished, and she shook her head ruefully. “I could use the help.”

Sanzo glanced at the young kami, then stepped just close enough for Gojyo to hear his murmur. “Problem?”

“Kind of the opposite of a problem,” Gojyo admitted.

Sanzo flicked a brow up.

“I hate Ni,” Gojyo observed. “I’m going to slice him into itty-bitty pieces. And maybe burn them with salt.”

Sanzo smirked. “Sounds like a sensible precaution.”

“I hate him,” Gojyo said again, testing what he felt inside. “But... I kind of like being me.”

_I like being able to pull a shakujou out of thin air. I like being able to tear up small trees_. Gojyo took a deep breath, teasing out Goku’s spicy earth scent, Hakkai’s sparkle of minerals, tea, and strangling vines, Sanzo’s hair-raising mix of citrus, ozone, and leather. _Damn. I even like this. These are my people. My clan_.

“Good,” Sanzo said dryly. “I have a hard enough time being me. There’s no way in the world I’d want to be _you_.”

Deliberately, Gojyo preened. “You couldn’t handle the action, priest.”

_Whack_.

_Damn_ , Gojyo thought, rubbing his stinging head. _Should’ve seen that coming_....

* * *

“Okay, see, problem here,” Jack said easily. Weighing his team’s odds of getting out of a whole palace of not-quite-Tok’ra in one piece. Right now, he’d say fifty-fifty. “You said Furling kids need a parent, or they go nuts.” He nodded toward Goku, currently waving his bo staff around for the pretty blonde. “Kid looks pretty sane to me.”

“He wasn’t right after Konzen died,” Kanzeon said quietly. “He kept it together long enough for me to put him back into stasis. Then I had to leave him there, for a very long time. I tried introducing other kami to him, but none of them linked. I thought I’d failed.” She winced. “And then about a decade ago, one of my Sanzos turned up dead, and another went missing. Tenkai Sanzo, the youkai holder of the Maten Sutra. And Ukoku Sanzo, keeper of the Muten Sutra.” She grimaced. “Koumyou and Tenkai were friends. He reached Tenkai in time to claim his sutra, but not in time to save him. It hurt Koumyou. It hurt me; I liked Tenkai. Put that together with the chaos of another Sanzo just gone, sutra and all - someone used the mess to steal Goku’s stasis pod. I _couldn’t find him_.”

Sam sat up very straight, one finger tracing water drops down the side of her glass. “So you thought adding some of Konzen’s DNA would let Dr. Genjyo find him.”

“Except that’s not exactly what she did.” Jack kept his gaze on the not-Tok’ra. “We don’t have fancy genetic analysis doo-dahs back on Earth. What we’ve got... well, it can tell when something not human got tossed into the mix. Sometimes. But hey, grab a few cell samples, use a few nanites - instant clone. And how could we find that with our tech?”

“I have a feeling you’re about to tell us,” Goujun said gruffly.

Oh wow, the dragon hadn’t turned into a statue. Jack had been wondering. “It’s really low-tech,” he said wryly. “Been used on our planet off and on for... oh, centuries, at least. You probably wouldn’t even want to bother with it. Boring.” Raising his hand, palm out, he wiggled his fingers.

For a moment Kanzeon blinked at him, eyes just a bit darker blue-violet than her nephew’s-

Then she laughed. Not a polite lady’s titter, or the cruel-edged cackle he’d heard from Hathor. A full-on, gut-deep laugh, arms wrapped around herself to keep her from falling off the silver-laced divan.

“My lady?” Goujun growled, gaze flicking between them as if he wanted to be absolutely sure a certain colonel wasn’t about to pull a knife.

“Fingerprints!” Kanzeon got out between giggles. “Oh, I love your people, Colonel. You keep things so interesting.” She wiped her eyes, and leaned her chin on her fist, weighing them all in her gaze. “Have you told him?”

Jack traded a glance with Daniel, reading his friend’s worry, and that little lift of eyebrow past his glasses that said, _your call, but think this over_.

“Don’t know exactly what there is to tell, yet,” Jack said thoughtfully. “But after the last time the SGC got burned here - we want to hear your side of the story.”

“My side,” Kanzeon mused. “Well. I let you meet the Hua sisters so you could ask questions. So I suspect you know that when my Sanzos call me, I come.” She lowered her hand, painted nails slowly tapping a rhythm on her bare knee. “They hardly ever call me; I teach them to take care of themselves. So if they do call - I come. Almost two years ago, Koumyou called....”

* * *

The cold spray from the fifth and last of the Five Gorges’ tumbling cascades was almost enough to knock her off her feet as she materialized. Just behind her, Jiroshin yelped.

Kanzeon caught and steadied her aide, then headed for the long silver braid above green-edged sutras, standing arrow-straight by the edge of one of the foaming pools. “Koumyou.”

“Merciful Goddess.” Her favorite human Sanzo was dripping wet, white robes shedding dirty river water as if he’d just struggled out of the falls himself. “I’ve found someone interesting. But he doesn’t have much time.”

_No_ , Kanzeon thought, seeing the wreck of a human body in torn and tattered Tau’ri green. _Not much time at all_.

* * *

“There wasn’t a bone in his body that wasn’t broken,” the Queen reflected. “I’ve seen youkai dead with half the damage. He _should_ have been dead. He was just too stubborn to die.” She took a silky breath. “He was hanging on, because Koumyou had him, promising there was help. But there was no way we could have kept him alive without a sarcophagus.” She paused. “Not in that body.”

Daniel swallowed hard, trying not to shudder. “So you... trapped his soul.”

“The Ancients and the Furlings both did an incredible amount of research into consciousness as an energy phenomenon,” Kanzeon stated. “There _is_ another world than this, Dr. Jackson. I can show you the data. But if a soul doesn’t want to move on - yes. You can catch the mind and soul, and keep them... well, asleep, if you know what you’re doing. I do.” An elegant shoulder lifted. “So I caught Kouryuu Genjyo, and held him. Brought his essence back to the lab for a careful analysis; you do not want to put a soul into a body it doesn’t want to fit, bad things happen. And then....” She trailed off, staring directly at him. “I can tell you what happened. I’m just not sure you’ll believe it. I wouldn’t believe it, if I couldn’t feel the truth.”

_I don’t want to know_.

“Try us,” Jack challenged.

“The manner of Konzen’s death was - brutal,” Kanzeon said shortly.

From the way the dragon general winced, Daniel believed it.

“I did what I could, but when I analyzed what I had... half his soul had already gone on. I didn’t know what to do. Let the rest of my little one go, never to remember Goku again in this life? Try to revive him, with half of what made him himself gone? I couldn’t.” Kanzeon shook her head, eyes distant. “I couldn’t.”

Distantly, Daniel felt his pulse speed up. _I have a bad feeling about this_.

“When I brought Kouryuu back to the lab....”

* * *

“This is impossible!” Jiroshin yelped, reading the alerts past her shoulder. “My lady, it has to be some kind of Tok’ra trick. Or some stratagem of the Tau’ri; we know they’re clever enough to have killed Ra-”

“Right,” Kanzeon Bosatsu mused, one hand caressing each of the crystalline soul-gems on her lab bench in turn. One might have the more red glow common to her children, the other a silvery-blue often seen in humans - but the rhythms of that glow had slowed and sped on each side the closer they were together, until now they beat in perfect time. “You think Egeria’s children, or the Tau’ri, or both, were somehow technologically clever enough to create a man with a soul that matches Konzen’s missing pieces, and then dumb enough to lose him down a waterfall?”  

Jiroshin cleared his throat. “It would match some of the records of the Ancients.”

“You have a point. But I think....”

Heart in her throat, she brought both gems close enough to touch. Soul-gems were _not_ perfect containment. They couldn’t hold a soul that truly, fully did not wish to _stay_.

“...I’m going to have a little faith.”

Crystal chimed against crystal. Light blazed, a wave of : _pain loss longing will not die!_ :

Kouryuu’s soul-gem was dark. Empty.

Konzen’s blazed, silver and red and sun-gold, calling to her.

_Alive. He’s alive_. Kanzeon let out a _whoof_ , and delicately touched the glow, opening her mind to the soul within.

:... _Took your sweet time, Aunt. Where the hell is my monkey...?_ :

* * *

Staff weapon within easy reach, Teal’c regarded the Goa’uld Kanzeon Bosatsu, careful to keep his face a warrior’s mask. It would be unwise to allow her to read his unease. Even less wise for his teammates to read it. They were already unnerved enough. False gods, his comrades had dealt with, and been triumphant. A true god, who kept faith with her people to death and beyond?

_This goddess allowed the Asgard to seal away her ability to raise warriors from death... and learned, instead, to create changed flesh and blood, that those untimely lost might find a new house for their soul_.

It was, as Daniel Jackson might say, a bit daunting.

Yet if his team did not know to ask, he would. “You say you knew the two pieces were one soul, before you allowed them to join,” Teal’c stated. “How? Daniel Jackson recounts that some of Ancient Egypt believed the soul had five components, some seven, and other mythlore of Earth commonly grants a soul at least two. Have you found evidence for this?”

“Evidence for souls?” O’Neill said under his breath. “Teal’c....”

Kanzeon raised dark brows, then gave the Jaffa a regal nod. “I can confirm at least four. The ka, the ba, the akh, and the sheut.”

“The spark of life, the personality, the... living mind, I guess is the best translation, and - the shadow?” Daniel Jackson frowned.

“The projection of an entity onto the energy plane,” Kanzeon stated. “In this world, we see it as a shadow blocking light. In other dimensions of the space-time continuum, it affects the world in various interesting ways.” She nodded. “I was able to catch his ka, and his akh. But his sheut, his energy-form, had been fragmented, and his ba fled into the winds of the universe.” Elegant fingers caressed silk. “Still, souls are a lot hardier than you’d think. The sheut, especially, is your connection to the greater universe, and it does not die easily. Even if it’s wounded. Even if it’s split, and half of it moves on.”

“To Kouryuu Genjyo,” Jack said flatly. “He’s not even the same species.”

“You say that as if you think souls have a species.” Kanzeon’s eyes crinkled in humor. “They don’t. _We_ don’t, Colonel. Biologically you and I are very different, and in the physical world that matters. Underneath the skin, in the greater realm of energy? We’re all children of the same universe. The Furlings knew that. I have records of their efforts in transplanting souls; both whole, and damaged. I’ve done it myself. Even with fragments - though I’ve usually only worked on those when a priest brings someone to the temples with soul-loss.” She paused. “If the Asgard know more of Furling history, they aren’t telling me. But what I and mine have been able to glean from the records implies they learned this much the same way Tau’ri did organ transplants.” She took a breath. “Medics on the field with the dying, who had nothing left to lose.”

“You think they were at war,” Samantha Carter stated. “With the Goa’uld?”

“Before the Goa’uld.” Kanzeon shook her head, and looked O’Neill in the eye. “If you’re wondering if you’ve been dealing with a host all along, don’t. Genjyo Sanzo is _himself_ , no other. Kouryuu’s memories are those he knows. He’s dealt with you honestly.” Her voice softened. “He always was a bad liar.”

“Yet that self is not human,” Teal’c declared. “He does not know.”

“He’ll figure it out eventually,” Kanzeon said wryly. “My human Sanzos have _died_ , Teal’c. Horribly and painfully, at enemy hands. There was no way I was going to send Konzen’s soul out into the world in anything as fragile as a human body. I grew one of Konzen’s kami cell samples into a viable body, transferred the soul, and gave Koumyou the child to raise. Here.” Red lips smiled fondly, as she winked at her dragon companion. “He was so _cute_ , Goujun! You should have seen him.”

“I’d rather not need healing for the heart attack, my lady,” Goujun sighed. “He did not seem to remember the palace....”

“Well, no. I’ve blocked those few months, for now,” Kanzeon shrugged. “He’ll remember when he’s ready.”

Teal’c saw his team tense, and was not surprised. If the Sanzo they knew was a force-grown clone of any species, there was but one way he could appear an adult in such a short time. And O’Neill’s encounter with the aging nanites that plagued the Argosians had been nearly fatal. “We destroyed Pelops’ transmitter on Argos,” he stated; not challenge, but simple fact. “Would you force us to destroy another?”

“He used a transmitter, hmm? I suppose that would make sense, if he planned for a hands-off experiment.” Kanzeon shook her head. “I’ve never needed one. Nanites are individually programmable, after all, and I never have so many bodies in progress that I can’t look after them personally. In a soul transfer, I normally do what I did for the Hua sisters; just age them up to a little past birth, so the mind can be integrated in. For Sanzo... I shut them down the night before he remembers waking up. They’re long gone.” She shrugged, sun-disc glinting. “So. Now you know who I am, and what my people are. You want Earth safe, and so far that means taking out the System Lords before they take you out. I want my people safe, all of them, and that means keeping my _beloved siblings_ from drawing the System Lords’ attention to what youkai really are, and getting them to stop playing patty-cake with Koushu. And we both want zatarcs stopped. Cured if we can, but _stopped_.” She leaned forward, hands pressed together. “So what’s your next move, Colonel?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Hua sisters are from an anime-only ep in Saiyuki (“Maidens of Sorrow”). I wanted fixit, so bad, and it fit with the background I had for Sanzo in this AU, so here it is. 
> 
> In reference to details on naquadah, Unas, heavy metals, and why a savvy Queen might try to avoid using both the sarcophagus and naquadah... a lot of credit for all this comes from Kryal. :) We bounced a bunch of stuff working out details for _The Dragon-King’s Temple,_ and I’m taking some of those details in a different direction. 
> 
> ...Imagine our surprise when new SG timeline info on when, where, and how the Goa’uld ended up with naquadah in their systems said we might be _right._


	9. No One Expects the Sanzo Inquisition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Credit to Kryal for anthropology geekery on what Daniel would have been trained in - and wouldn’t.

: _How long do you plan for us to stall here, Jacob?_ :

_Until I get Gonou out, and into a new tank where we can take care of him_ , Jacob replied silently, bouncing one of Janet’s colonel-rated rainbow rubber balls off the wall as he sat beside Harris’ bed. The man was sedated at the moment, which was best for everyone; given a few days to stabilize in a new body, he could encourage Gonou to move out without risking either life too much. Hakkai had come out in one piece, but youkai were made of damn tough stuff. If Gonou wasn’t aware enough to restrain the toxin release on his next exit, Harris would die.

_We’re stalling that long, Selmak. George deserves it_ , Jacob went on. _And he deserves a better answer from Garshaw than “sorry” for why Menai lost a GDO and didn’t break every lightspeed record reporting it back to us_ and _Hammond. That’s Earth’s safety net Menai let slip through his fingers. If it hadn’t been Genjyo’s team who grabbed it, but one of Ba’al’s or Nirrti’s people - Earth wouldn’t be here. George has every right to be ticked. What was Menai thinking?_

Bounce and catch. Bounce and catch.

_Or maybe, just maybe, I’m waiting until you fill in some of the holes in your story on Kanzeon_ , Jacob told his partner. _Sammie says you shot Konzen Douji and his pet. Maybe I don’t know what happened, but I felt what you felt when she said that. You didn’t shoot the youkai kid. So what happened?_

:.. _We were assisting an agent in place_ ,: Selmak admitted. : _Things became... complicated. And confusing. For a time, I truly thought I had shot him. It was only later, reviewing security visuals we obtained before Kanzeon Bosatsu purged Kamou’s access to the Palace’s systems, that I was able to identify that I... missed. Somehow. I_ thought _I had killed them, and so I made my escape. But - it was an illusion. They escaped into a liftshaft_.:

_An illusion?_ Jacob thought uneasily.

: _The High Council later determined that Konzen Douji must have been equipped with the same sort of neural weapon Kanzeon’s priests have used since_ ,: Selmak stated. : _Once the High Council had determined to their satisfaction that I had not been damaged, it was decided not to alarm the younger Tok’ra by admitting that even one of our oldest and wisest might not see through Kanzeon’s weapons_.:

Jacob caught the ball again, and clapped a hand to his forehead, wishing he had a headache to rub. “Let me get this straight. You think Kanzeon’s got something that can mess with even a Tok’ra mind, and you _don’t_ tell your people about the threat?”

: _Jacob_ ,: Selmak sighed, : _you of all people know that the High Council’s authority over the Tok’ra rests on our wisdom. If our younger siblings thought that might be challenged, our entire resistance might fall apart! We would fail Egeria. We would fail Earth._ :

Which was a decent reason. Still. _You’re dodging the question on Kanzeon, Selmak_ , Jacob said silently, tucking bouncy rubber into his jacket pocket. _What the hell did she do that’s so much worse than all the rest of the System Lords put together?_

* * *

“You’re saying that Kanzeon Bosatsu is....” Hammond stared down the alien black eyes in the hologram, and was glad he’d already sent an airman down to invite Jacob up here. “Commander Thor. Before we discuss the situation any farther, I’d like to have Ambassador Carter and Selmak in on this. Just so all parties involved are absolutely clear on all details.”

The Asgard’s gray head tilted, a shimmer of light. “In light of the information the SGC has so far provided, I believe that would be wise.”

Which sounded like Thor thought they knew a lot more than they were telling.

_I wish I did_ , General Hammond thought reluctantly. _As it is, I know just enough to realize we’ve gone from SNAFU to full-blown FUBAR_.

With SG-1 right in the middle of it, and no way to warn them. God, he hoped Jack was on his toes.

The conference room door opened, Jacob walking through with a general’s determination to show no uncertainty. “George.” He nodded to the hologram. “Supreme Commander. To what do I owe the honor?”

“Jacob,” Hammond said plainly. “Let me cut right to the point. Thor says that Kanzeon Bosatsu... is a Tok’ra.”

Jacob’s eyes bugged. He shook his head, like shaking off water, and held up a hand: _Wait_. Frowned, eyes chasing back and forth across the room without seeing it, like a silent version of Daniel and Jack having one of their infamous arguments about the merits of C-4 versus decoding hieroglyphic locks. Blew out a long, long, breath. “...Oh, hell.”

“Is it true?” Hammond asked. Not judging anyone. Not _yet_.

“I think I need to sit down for this.” Jacob grabbed a chair so he could look Hammond and Thor both in the eye. “Apparently it is. Selmak, that really falls under _need to know_. As in, we needed to know that!”

Then Jacob’s head dipped, and Selmak looked up. “Supreme Commander. You ask us to unveil our greatest shame.”

“I do not understand.” Thor blinked. “She has done a great service to the Asgard, by ensuring dangerous technology does not fall into System Lord hands. The people on her planet are allowed to govern themselves, save where advanced technology might be put at risk. What has she done which is shameful?”

“She denies that technology to the Tok’ra,” Selmak said coldly. “She has abandoned Egeria’s mission against the System Lords. She spawns new broods - not to replace our numbers, who need them the most, but to _experiment_ with making them other than what we are! They are not Tok’ra! They are not even Goa’uld! They are - _other_.”  

“Or as a certain colonel might put it,” Hammond mused, “she told you to go screw yourselves.” He skewered Thor with a look. “Now tell me _why_.”

“Because I requested it of her.” Another slow blink. “Do the Tok’ra not wish allies against the System Lords? Kanzeon Bosatsu is... righting a wrong the Asgard cannot correct. Given the Protected Planets Treaty rests in part on the System Lords’ reluctance to challenge our fleets, we could not have it known that there was... an aspect of technology the Asgard could not safely handle. So I requested her silence.” Thor regarded Selmak calmly. “It would appear this strategy is no longer effective in maintaining Shangri-La’s safety.”

Selmak scowled. “If there is a technology the Tok’ra can use against the System Lords-”

“It would seem the Tok’ra, as well, cannot safely handle that technology,” Thor said levelly. “Given the events that took place nine centuries ago, when the Tok’ra Kamou did his best to tamper with it... and nearly slaughtered one of the last Furlings left alive.”

“Furlings?” Hammond broke in, before this could get any farther out of hand. Obviously, as Daniel would put it, there was a breakdown in communications here that wasn’t anything as simple as the meaning of words. “The last race in the Alliance? Are you certain? We’ve barely even found a few ruins-”

“Shangri-La was one of their terraformed worlds,” Thor cut him off, watching Selmak. “We are certain.”

“Furlings?” Selmak’s tone held what Hammond thought might actually be honest disbelief. “Supreme Commander. I have been on Shangri-La. There are no Furlings there.”

Thor’s black eyes seemed a bit more blank than usual. “The child. Son Goku.”

Selmak dipped his head, and Jacob was back and blinking. “You can’t be serious. I know what a Furling looks like! They’re-” His hand waved toward the ceiling, like a cub reporter gesturing at Godzilla. “Twenty feet tall! With claws and fangs and chitin-scale armor, throwing psychokinetic force around like baseballs! They’re the scariest sentient thing any Goa’uld’s ever seen! And you think we could have _missed_ them?”

“That is a Furling’s war-form.” Thor actually sounded confused. “Their peace-forms - you would say civilian - can be quite different. The Tok’ra are aware of this.”

Staring back, Jacob shook his head. “Thor, I swear to you, when Selmak thinks ‘Furling’, that’s all we’ve got. Huge, vicious, _scary_ monsters. Your allies, yeah, sure - but we haven’t seen anything like that on Shangri-La. I mean, some of the youkai look a _little_ like that when they go completely nuts, but.... No. The Furlings were your allies. Why the hell would we attack them?”

“That is not-”

“If you would give me a moment, Supreme Commander,” Hammond interrupted. “As Dr. Jackson might say, I think what we have here is a failure to communicate.” He pointed at Jacob. “Now, you say, as far as you know, the Tok’ra know Furlings as these... war-forms.” Turning slightly, he pointed at Thor’s hologram. “While you say the Tok’ra know Furlings as other things. Why do you think that?”

“Kanzeon Bosatsu was aware of what she had found.” Thor almost seemed to be frowning. “The Goa’uld share genetic memory. If Kanzeon remembers the Furlings as they were, all Tok’ra should.”

“Kanzeon Bosatsu is a Queen!” Jacob said in disbelief.

“She is.” Thor sounded puzzled. “What does her ability to reproduce your species have to do with identifying a Furling?”

_“Arrrgh!”_

Keeping a straight face, Hammond handed Jacob a pad of lined paper. “Beating your head against that helps. Sometimes.” Deliberately ignoring the multi-lingual swearing from his old friend, Hammond eyed Thor. “Apparently it does make a difference.”

“How is that possible?” Thor tilted his head. “Are not all Goa’uld of the same species? Why would they not carry the same memories?”

In another minute, Hammond thought, he was going to be joining Jacob in his head-banging. “Obviously they don’t. Genes can always change, Thor. The Tok’ra themselves told us Egeria created them by making sure they were born without the normal Goa’uld drives toward domination of their hosts. So whatever Egeria may or may not have known, the Tok’ra have been altered.”

“Queens can do that,” Jacob managed, having thoroughly crunched an entire legal pad of paper into a messy ball. “They’re born with more memories than all of us. They have to be - they’re the ones who choose what to pass on to the rest of their young. Kanzeon was our deep-cover agent, Thor. She had to be as much like a Goa’uld as possible, or she’d have gotten slaughtered in the courts before she could ever start passing information back.”

“And a surviving deep-cover agent,” Hammond added, “tells her superiors as little as possible about anything that’s not directly related to her mission. The less they know about the agent, the less can leak, and the more likely she is to survive. You asked Kanzeon not to mention what she was doing with the Furlings? My guess would be, she didn’t. Even to the High Council.”

Not to mention that if the Tok’ra had treated Kanzeon anything like the way they’d treated the SGC in the past few years.... Well. Hammond suspected Shangri-La’s current System Lord had been burned by Tok’ra high-handedness herself.

_No. I don’t have to suspect. I know_. “Let me see if I understand the situation correctly,” Hammond said graciously. “Kanzeon found Furlings on Shangri-La, and the Asgard asked her to... nurture the species back from extinction?”

“It was in the Asgard interest, but it was a personal request,” Thor stated. “The Furlings were brave and effective allies. Unfortunately, the... emotional extremes, that power their abilities, make their minds incompatible with our species. An adult Furling can modulate their empathy to not damage us. A child cannot.” He paused. “Kanzeon Bosatsu herself is not compatible with a Furling child, but she believed that through her research she could create... you would call them foster parents?”

Jacob, Hammond noticed, was just a shade paler than normal. “Konzen Douji.”

Thor inclined his head. “An apparent success.”

Jacob buried his head in his hands.

“All right, let’s not throw around blame here,” Hammond said bluntly. “Whatever happened nine centuries ago, and obviously a lot went wrong, what all of us have to deal with is the present situation. Jacob. Selmak. With this new information, do you believe the High Council would be willing to suspend operations on Shangri-La for at least a decade?”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Jacob said heavily. “You just told me everything the Council thought about what Kanzeon’s up to is wrong. So maybe you’d better tell me what _you_ think she’s up to.” He lifted his head, with the same sheepish grin George had seen when he’d hauled a much younger Jacob out of an impending barfight. “While we’ve both got someone who can beat our heads against the wall about what Earth needs _now_.”

Hammond nodded, hoping that smile was as true as it seemed. _Why do I think this is too easy?_

* * *

“Argh!”

Sam was shuffling translucent pages, reading text and feeling over the printed lines with a thoughtful frown. Daniel was poking at the temple tablet; gingerly, but poking it, going through information Sam had indeed managed to hack out of the local systems, which ha, take that, Kanzeon. And Teal’c was half-meditating over the remains of their dinner, keeping watch for any unwelcome guests to their very nice, possibly bugged, guest quarters in Kanzeon’s Heavenly Palace. Which left Jack free to pick up a pillow and bang his head against the lovingly decorated wall. Hopefully not hard enough to give himself a concussion. Though a spate of unconsciousness sounded _really damn good_ about now.

“Does it truly invoke a sense of contentment when you stop, O’Neill?”

Smart aleck Jaffa. “At the moment, yes,” Jack grumbled. “I just - we just - argh! This? This is not supposed to happen. We’re supposed to get evil gloating, or ‘gee we forgot to mention’, or ‘too primitive’. We’re not supposed to get, ‘Oh, I’m rescuing a whole _species_ , you want to give me a hand?’”

“The question,” Teal’c mused, “is if we aid Kanzeon Bosatsu in her attempts to rescue not only the Furling species, but her own.”

There. Right there. Teal’c had nailed it. Jack glared at the pretty wave-pattern on the wall one more time, then turned around and plopped himself back into one of the comfy chairs.

...Because _of course_ Kanzeon had comfy chairs. She had the Sanzo Inquisition, why not?

“What the hell do I tell him?” Jack poked at a twisted bit of what looked like mandarin orange peel. “A Goa’uld thinks you’re one of her kids’ lost souls? Oh, and no matter what she thinks, you’re not human anymore?”

“It is highly likely Genjyo Sanzo is aware that he is no longer Tau’ri, O’Neill.” Teal’c looked a bit graver than usual. “If they have been in as many battles as their tales indicate, it is unlikely he has escaped serious injury. Cho Hakkai appears to have no small measure of Dr. Fraiser’s skills, and a competent healer notices such differences.”

“Yeah, well, big difference between mad scientist messing with you, and somebody _yanked out your mind_ and put it in another body.” Here and now, Jack would allow himself a shudder. “That’s... MacKenzie would probably have a field day about conservative personality types and obsessions with purity and integrity. But there’s just something _wrong_ about that.”

“Not in cultures that allow for reincarnation and transmigration of souls.” Daniel looked up from the tablet, intent. “She didn’t say he was Konzen, she said he had Konzen’s _soul_. He’s Genjyo Sanzo. That, well, pretty much fits in with the sort-of Hindu-Buddhist traditions around here. Even gods are supposed to incarnate as other lives, once in a while.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “So what do you think we should tell him?”

“I... have no clue,” Daniel admitted. “Does it matter? I mean, next to trying to get the Tok’ra to back off so they don’t get tangled up with the Asgard. As long as Earth’s under the Protected Planets Treaty, anything that takes Asgard attention off the System Lords isn’t good.”

“It matters,” Jack stated. “You don’t lie to your own people unless there’s no choice. And he was one of ours.” He thumped the back of his head against a cushion. “Was.”

Wasn’t _now_ , though - and that had finally let Jack put a finger on what Black Ops training had glommed onto in Sanzo’s little soul-shredding speech. Besides the whole tearing his heart apart from the inside out.

_“One of the deadly sins is_ pride. _”_

That had not been a linguist talking. Not a cultural expert. Not even a geek buried in the books.

_“We’ve all got blood on our hands. Some of us manage to hold onto something good anyway.... Even if we don’t deserve it._ Especially _if we don’t deserve it.”_

Not a linguist. Not a civilian. That was a _priest_.

“I think I got raised too Catholic,” Jack muttered. “I don’t know what to do when somebody really _believes_.” He raised an eyebrow at Daniel.

Blue eyes blinked owlishly. “Um....”

“Myth guy,” Jack observed.

“Well, yes,” Daniel admitted. “I... don’t think that’s what you’re looking for, here.”

Jack raised the other eyebrow.

“I’m an anthropologist.”

“And you study religion,” Jack pointed out. From the corner of his eye he noticed Teal’c perk up, interested.

“Yes,” Daniel agreed. “As an anthropologist.”

Jack spread questioning hands.

“Oh, boy....” Daniel touched his glasses, thinking. “Jack, I come from the positivist tradition. I analyze big systems-” He cut himself off. Took a breath. “I work on what you can see, and hear, and grab hold of. I can tell you about the economics of a religion, its social networks, its power structures. I can tell you Sanzo apparently outranks everyone in the Temples when it comes to emergencies and direct access to Kanzeon. That he has some kind of bank card - and that’s worth studying all by itself, Shangri-La has a credit aspect to their monetary system, I bet the rings make that easier - _anyway_ he has a card to draw on Temple funds for his team. And either he trusts Hakkai not to max it out or it’s got one heck of an upper limit. The people we’ve met think Sanzo _really is_ holy. Despite the fact that he acts like a cranky wolverine with a toothache. Even Kanzeon’s Favored - and if anyone on this planet knows the Goa’uld aren’t gods, they do.”

The archaeologist sighed. “I can tell you all that, and none of it’s going to help you. I know how to analyze _belief systems_. Stuff you can measure. Whether or not someone actually believes in their faith, especially someone who remembers being raised on Earth, who knows Kanzeon’s not really a goddess - I don’t know. I’m not even sure where to start.”

Okay. Like Danny’d said, not helpful. At least it was honestly not helpful.

“Although....” Daniel frowned, weaving his fingers together like linking up thoughts, before he pulled them apart enough to tap fingertips together. “I _can_ tell you Sanzo - maybe all the Sanzos - are set up to have a liminal position.”

_Ooo boy. Incoming technicalities, twelve o’clock high_.

“Basically, he’s someone who can break the rules, because in a way they don’t apply to him,” Daniel went on. “He’s... in a gray area. He’s not just human, he’s not just divine. He’s both, and not exactly either, at the same time. Which would make him doubly sacred, and someone who can... mediate between the two... _huh_.”

“Is that an ominous _huh_ , or an explains-something?” Jack asked.

Daniel blew out a breath. “The sutras were an Ancient-Furling project. That makes _them_ liminal, too.”

Teal’c nodded once. “If it is the sutras that helped give this world life, then the people of this faith would wish to see them honored, by having bearers that honor their origin and purpose.”

“That, and... I think Kanzeon may have picked Genjyo for a Sanzo on purpose.” Daniel was nibbling his lip, as if chewing over an odd thought. “Besides the whole... Konzen’s soul thing. The way she saved his life - Koumyou would legitimately consider Genjyo Sanzo an appropriately liminal person to have as an apprentice, because he’s not Tau’ri _or_ Shangri-La. He’s someone _caught between_. And if Kanzeon gave him the child to raise....” He looked up. “Jack, I can’t say what really happened. But if you want my guess, Koumyou was sincere. Genjyo _was_ his apprentice, he was _always_ meant to have the sutra, and as far as _everyone_ on Shangri-La is concerned, the Sanzo we know is legitimately Genjyo Sanzo.”

_Sutras_ , plural, if Jack had heard Jikaku right. Seiten and Maten - and if Kanzeon was on the level, then Sanzo had the sutra last held by a youkai. Maybe that was why he got along with them so well....

And Kanzeon had apparently been willing to let Sanzo walk off with not one, but _two_ of her five Weapons of Zombie Destruction. Something spooky about that.

Though Daniel actually had gotten at part of what he was worried about. “Not faking it,” Jack said, just to be clear. “Not bluffing. If he says he can do something, he’s legitimately got the power to back it up.”

“Which I guess is what really matters, to the SGC,” Daniel reflected. “But to you, Jack....”

_Uh-oh_.

“Religion... isn’t about myths. Not really,” Daniel reflected. “Religion is about _why_. Why do we have pain? Why do innocent people suffer? How should you live a good life, be a good person? How do you even answer those questions?”

Good question. Not like Jack had the answers, not after-

_“These people care about you,”_ came that remembered snarl. _“You can wallow in your guilt and your pride forever, and pull them down to drown in your blood... or you can accept that sometimes, no matter how good you think you are, the universe is going to slap you with a_ really bad day. _”_

A bad day. Like it was just that simple, when Sanzo had never lost-

_He never lost a son_ , Jack admitted to himself. _He lost plenty of other things. His planet. His past. His... damn. His_ foster father.

Sanzo was surrounded by broken people. Sha and Hakkai had lost their selves and part of their sanity; Goku had lost parents _and_ foster parent. But Sanzo wasn’t letting them sink into the dark. He poked them, he _snarled_ at them, he dragged them over hill and dale and gave them problems they could fix. Or not. But at least they were _trying_.

_Sanzo helps people_ , Jack realized. _Maybe it’s not pretty, maybe it’s not nice - but when you’re on the battlefield you don’t want a namby-pamby surgeon worried about leaving a few scars. You want the meatball who can improvise, who can patch you up and keep you_ alive _until you can get back behind the lines and safe_.

Sanzo had gone after him with a sneer and a snarl, opening up the poison to let it drain. It hurt; god, it hurt. But it was the kind of hurt he knew from Janet picking up a scalpel. _I don’t care if you hate me_ , the doc would say. _You’re walking out of here alive_.

“You know,” Jack said, half to himself, “that guy’s not half bad at the priest thing.”

Teal’c nodded. Daniel looked between them like he couldn’t believe his ears. “He’s not? But he- you-”

“Oh, sure, comes to shepherds, he’s the guy that picks the little lamb up and throws it across the river,” Jack acknowledged. “While he’s punching the big bad wolf in the teeth. These people are in a war. They don’t need a good Father who tells them to be quiet and turn the other cheek. They need somebody who’s been there. Who knows what it’s like to walk out alive, and... feel like maybe you shouldn’t have.”

“Jack,” Daniel said softly, glasses glinting with worry.

“I’m - not okay,” Jack allowed. “But I’ve been worse. A lot worse.” He smirked. “Like I said. Not half bad at the priest thing.”

“Sanzo... may not just be a priest thing,” Daniel admitted. “Unless you buy into the Indiana Jones-style interpretations of the Old Testament priests of Israel; the keepers of the power of God. Or the nutjobs who think the Ark of the Covenant was an alien super-weapon.”

“Pyramids as alien landing pads,” Jack pointed out, amused.

“The pyramids aren’t even mentioned in the Old Testament-” Daniel squinted at him, catching onto the joke. “Okay. In here?” He tapped the tablet. “I found some evidence that the sutras are alien technology. I don’t think they’re _meant_ to be weapons....”

“Run over someone with a bulldozer, they’re just as dead as if you hit them with a tank,” Jack reflected. “What’ve you got?”

Daniel cleared his throat. _“Long ago, the Tathagata_ \- that’s a tricky word, I think it means ‘those gone beyond’ - _spread forth a sutra across the heavens, from which was born existence and void, light and dark. Shangri-La was created thence, where life and death came to be. The Tathagata tore apart the sutra into five pieces and entrusted its fate into the hands of the people Below.”_

Jack had to blink at that one. “Now, how did _that_ get started when Kanzeon said she found them in the lab?”

“I would guess Kanzeon started it,” Daniel said wryly. “It isn’t exactly _wrong_. If someone left the sutras there, they were entrusted to anyone who found them by default.” He scrolled down. “Together they’re called... huh. _Tenchi Kaigen Kyoumon_ \- the Founding Scriptures of Heaven and Earth. They really are liminal, then...” He stopped, reread, and nodded. “Five sutras. Maten, Seiten, Uten, Muten, and Kouten. Together they were used in the creation of the world; it is said if they were ever to be brought together again, what might happen is unimaginable.”

“Do not push the big red button,” Jack said solemnly. “Got it. Just _one_ little problem with that....”

Teal’c inclined his head. “Given the curious nature of both humans and youkai, how is Shangri-La still intact?”

“That would be it,” Jack agreed.

“Because the Sanzos’ job is to make sure they all stay apart,” Daniel answered, rereading bits as he skipped around. “Those chosen to protect the sutras bear the title of Sanzo, and are granted the red chakra of those closest to Heaven... okay, lot on priestly duties here, mostly boils down to _be blessed by their divine presence_... urk. Um. Looks like in the higher priestly manuals? Maten sutra holders are one of the ones with a footnote.”

“Give them what they want, hope they go away?” Jack mused, fascinated.

“More or less,” Daniel acknowledged. “Apparently most Sanzos are good and holy and peaceful.”

“Most,” Teal’c observed, straight face solemnly intrigued.

“Maten Sanzos are the ones who find evil and _hunt it down_.” Daniel blew out a breath. “Read between the lines, there’s a lot of eeping going on.”

“No kidding,” Jack muttered. “What the heck does that thing do? Besides turn zombies to ash. Which is very cool, but not going to look good on the mission report.”

Daniel scrolled down a bit more, and sighed. “What I’ve got is, ah, more poetic description than anything specific.”

“Hit me,” Jack shrugged, casting a glance sideways as Sam sat up straight, and felt one of the pages between her fingertips again. That glint in blue eyes was a certain astrophysicist sneaking up on an idea, and it’d be a lot better if they didn’t bother her and chase it away. “Maten first?”

“It’s supposed to rule over evil and yin,” Daniel summed up. “Supposedly it _breaks the darkness_ , whatever that means. And it’s - oh. Neat. Tenkai wasn’t a one-time thing. Traditionally the Maten is held by a youkai Sanzo.”

“Which would explain some of the _give them what they want and pray_ ,” Jack quipped.

Daniel raised both brows in disbelief. “Jack, we really haven’t met enough normal youkai to know how cranky they are yet.”

“Oh, no,” Jack agreed mildly. “Just, the priests seem to think our Sanzo’s doing a _swell_ job.”

“Point,” Daniel muttered. “Okay... Seiten, holiness and yang. It has the power to _bring forth the light_.” He shook his head. “Don’t ask me how that’s different from breaking darkness. But it’s usually held by a human Sanzo. So is the Uten; that one’s supposed to deal with life and existence.”

Jack grimaced. “Does what’s in there say if that Sanzo is dead?”

“If - oh. Right. Kanzeon said her human Sanzos died....” Daniel peered at one of the documents. “Urgh. Yeah, he’s dead alright. Very. Ow. There’s a cross-reference to a report by our Sanzo in here. It’s... wow. These guys have almost as bad a record with fortresses as we do.”

Teal’c shifted in his chair, obviously interested.

“Really short version? Cross-dressing scorpion youkai ate the Uten Sanzo, tried to eat our Sanzo, poisoned him, and the rest of Sanzo’s team dropped a fortress and half a desert on his - her? - head,” Daniel summed up.

“Cross-dressing scorpion youkai,” Jack repeated. Because damn. “We have _got_ to bring that report to Hammond.”

“I think there were bloodstains on the original.” Daniel squinted at the screen. “There’s also some kind of reference to Prince Kougaiji getting his ‘everything broken’.” He read a little farther, and shuddered. “That... really doesn’t look like one of their more fun missions.”

Ooof. “Aging cake not-fun, Neanderthal virus not-fun, SGC about to get sucked into a black hole not-fun?” Jack waved a hand. “Gimme a scale here.”

“Neanderthal virus is close,” Daniel said after a moment. “Though there’s something in here about stopping a desert from swallowing whole villages, so... yeah.”

“They faced the youkai prince who serves Gyokumen Koushu,” Teal’c noted. “If we successfully negotiate a truce with Kanzeon Bosatsu, it is likely we will encounter her forces attacking us as Kanzeon’s allies. Is there more information on Kougaiji’s followers?”

“In this report? Not much,” Daniel reflected. “Sha definitely wrote at least half of this, there’s all kinds of... _really_ bad words about Dokugakuji having the decency to help Kougaiji pull them all out of the sand-trap and then standing behind his clan lord when Kougaiji challenged them to- oh. Ow.”

Teal’c frowned.

Daniel blew out a breath. “Sanzo was poisoned. Hakkai was trying to keep him alive. Apparently Kougaiji usually travels with his own healer, a youkai apothecary named Yaone. But she wasn’t there, and when Sha asked for help....”

“Fight me to get it?” Jack guessed.

Daniel blinked. “How did you know?”

“Hey, I’ve seen a bunch of warrior honor cultures in my time,” Jack shrugged. “On Earth and off. I’m guessing something went wrong, though, or Sha wouldn’t have left in the insults. So, what?”

“Um. There’s... not much in the way of details.” Daniel’s gaze flicked over the text. “Just one sentence, really. _Goku took his limiter off_.”

“The limiter Sanzo says has to stay on,” Jack said, just to be sure.

“Right.”

“The thing that keeps youkai from going crazy where Koushu’s zatarc-thingie is projecting stuff,” Jack went on.

“Right.”

“When his foster parent - the guy Kanzeon says Furling kids _need to stay sane_ \- was dying,” Jack finished.

“...Yeah.”

“Do not play games with the funny crown,” Jack concluded.

“No,” Daniel agreed. “There’s an additional note a few days later-” The archaeologist stifled a laugh. “Jack? Sanzo’s got your report style down.”

Jack raised an eyebrow, oddly cheered.

Daniel cleared his throat. _“Came out of coma, searched sand with sutra, Uten poof, assume Koushu’s got it. Damn bastard Kougaiji. Damn idiot monkey_. _”_

“Short and sweet,” Jack smirked. “So... that leaves us with two.”

Daniel nodded. “The Kouten has power over the infinite and unknown - oh. Huh. Remember how Sanzo said some kami are running around loose with no symbiotes?” He tapped the screen. “Kept by a kami Sanzo.”

Huh. Interesting, but not as interesting as what that meant by default. “So... if it’s not a human, youkai or kami, who keeps the Muten?” Jack wondered.

“And this would be the other one with a footnote,” Daniel said grimly. _“The Muten governs death and nothingness. Its power buries all creation in a darkness blacker than night.”_ He glanced up. “Not much detail on this one either. But what there is, reminds me of what happens to things hit by hard vacuum. Explosive decompression.” He took a deep breath. “Jack - this is the big gun. The sutra that’s supposed to be kept by one of Kanzeon’s Favored.”

“The first sutra that went missing, when the Tok’ra stepped up their messing around,” Jack said flatly. “Damn. No wonder she grabbed Genjyo. She needed a hole card.”

Teal’c nodded, slow and thoughtful.

“Um... one of her offspring and the Muten sutra goes missing, so grabbing someone from off the planet makes sense how?” Daniel ventured.

Jack quirked a brow up at him. “And our homicidal non-maniac has that incredibly fluffy nickname of Thousand-Slayer why?”

Daniel paled. “...Oh.”

Teal’c inclined his head. “We have seen the extreme reaction Jolinar’s memories have to Kanzeon’s offspring. The Tok’ra Gonou would not have engaged in a relationship with one of Kanzeon’s Favored unless he had reasons to suppress that revulsion. It is likely that Kanan was not the first, nor the only, of Kanzeon’s children to be suborned by the Tok’ra.”

“So if her Sanzos are being targeted - and Kanzeon’s no dummy, she knows they are,” Jack picked up the thread, “then soul or no soul, what better guy to grab for a backup apprentice than somebody who _knows_ the Tok’ra screw people over?”

“How could she know that?” Daniel objected. “All she’d know was he was from the SGC... and the guy who just saw his team wiped out because the Tok’ra gave us bad intel. Right.” He sighed, and glared at the tablet again.

“What’d those poor reports do to you lately?” Jack wondered.

“Poor reports,” Daniel snorted. “After what we’ve seen Sanzo do with a paper scroll... how does that even work? It’s paper, but it’s tech, and there’s no way that should mix, I don’t care what techno-origami types think.”

“Oh, you don’t know the half of it,” Sam breathed, slipping out specific pages into a separate stack. “Sir, I’ve got it!”

Oh, thank god. “I looked,” Jack pointed out. “Didn’t see any codes in that mess.”

“It’s not a code, sir.” His major looked downright delighted. “Daniel, I think I need that tablet. Did you see the watermarks in the pages?”

“Locally made paper,” Daniel frowned, handing it over. “It would have more watermarks than we’re used to in factory sheaves. That would be a tricky way to set up a code.”

“It’s not a code. And it’s not handmade.” Sam’s eyes gleamed. “They’re _printed circuits_. All the pages have them. But Sha said to use divisible by itself, which means primes. Take out the non-prime pages, starting with four, and give it a power source....” Sam shuffled a stack together, set it down, and rested the tablet on top.

A pale shimmer, and a hologram flickered into being.

“The non-primes act as buffers, keeping the whole circuit from linking up.” Sam leaned over the pretty lights, ruefully admiring the tech. “If you don’t know what pages to use, it’s unreadable.”

_If you’re smart enough to read this message_ , floated over the translucent model of the Heavenly Palace, _hopefully you’re smart enough not to need it_.

“Floorplan, good,” Jack stated, as Sam played with the blinking lights, zooming in and out of various levels to focus on a highlighted path that led down into what looked like a back subbasement set of rings. “Not much good getting out of here if we don’t have a key to the ‘Gate-”

One corner of the stacked pages smoked, darkening with an audible hiss. A line of sparks flared, and a small oval of no-longer-paper dropped away.

_...You’re welcome_ , flashed up under the first message.

Daniel picked it up before it’d even stopped smoking. “It looks like one of the Tok’ra ‘Gate talismans.”

“What did we say about not poking hot stuff?” Jack let Daniel drop it into his hand, eyeing it gingerly. “Does at that.” He glanced at Teal’c.

The Jaffa inclined his head thoughtfully. “If Daniel Jackson is correct that Sanzo is allowed to break certain rules, then it seems likely Kanzeon is relying on him to use his knowledge of the Tau’ri to decide when it is best to intervene. And in what fashion.” A fraction of a shrug. “Would we trust a ‘Gate talisman given to us by a System Lord, when we are otherwise at her mercy?”

“We wouldn’t.” Daniel rubbed at his eyes. “So she gives it to us by _not_ giving it to us, so Sanzo will. Right.”

“Headache?” Jack said sympathetically. Past few days hadn’t been easy on any of them.

“I was just thinking... I’m kind of not surprised Kanzeon wants to talk to us,” Daniel admitted, hands moving to his temples. “I think... I _think_ we can actually help each other. Not just with the whole Tok’ra mess. We’re both trying to figure out how to deal with culture clashes. What kind of tech is safe to bring home and let loose? What kind of _ideas_ can we let out from under the Mountain? What kind of precautions do we need to take with what’s not safe? Kanzeon’s people believe in transmigration of souls - and she can actually _do_ it. We have enough crazy reactions from people who don’t believe in reincarnation to people who do when everything in the mix is native to Earth. How do you think people would react to someone who doesn’t see anything wrong with putting an alien soul in a _human_ body, or the other way around, because souls don’t have a species- _oh_.”

And that was a very pale-faced _oh_. “Danny?”

“It’s not just the naquadah.” Daniel lowered his hands, stunned. “Kanzeon... she _doesn’t care_ that Konzen’s soul was in a human. And now it’s in a kami. And it’s definitely not in a Goa’uld anymore.” He looked up, determined. “Jack - Goku’s not the only one in danger. If the Tok’ra find out what Sanzo is....”

“They would consider him an abomination,” Teal’c rumbled. “The Tok’ra define themselves as symbiotes who do not override their hosts. Genjyo Sanzo has _become_ the host.” His gaze shifted to Jack. “We must warn him, O’Neill.”

“Going to be tricky to do that without getting into the whole, _you’re not exactly human anymore_ ,” Jack sighed.

Sam was looking between them as if she thought they’d tried some of the funny mushrooms about ten planets back. Which, okay, they’d only done that _once_ , and thank goodness for Teal’c and Junior detoxifying potential hallucinogens. “I... actually don’t think the Tok’ra will care,” she said carefully. “I know they talk about the sarcophagus sucking the good out of their souls, but - honestly, sir? That’s kind of a shorthand for corrosive effects on the brain and psychology that, well....”

“Primitive humans aren’t supposed to get, huh?” Jack grumped.

“I never had much of a chance to discuss Tok’ra beliefs with Martouf,” Sam acknowledged. “I know what we’ve heard them say for funerals. _We do not surrender, even in death. You will not be forgotten_. So I know they believe in _something_. But as for actual souls, that stick around as ghosts, or go to Hell or Heaven or - wherever? That’s... more a human thing.”

Ouch. “You mean, they’d think Kanzeon is flat-out bricks short of a wheelbarrow,” Jack said wryly. Thank goodness he’d had his little belief-freakout about Sanzo with his team, instead of in mixed company.

“That, and....” Sam took a deep breath. “They already think Kanzeon’s offspring are abominations. If they even believed the whole story about Konzen, I don’t think it would matter.” She shrugged. “As for the other half of the problem, sir... Sanzo may have been up to his ears in very distracting violence for the past two years, but he just spent a few days dealing with Earth-native humans and all the things we _can’t do_. Like keep up with a youkai pace for days straight. If he doesn’t know he’s _not_ human - give him a day to think. He’ll figure it out.” She hid a chuckle behind her hand. “And he knows damn well he’s not normal, sir. _Knurd_.”

* * *

“So.” Sanzo leaned against the right side of the stone window-frame, looking out onto the moonlit garden outside their rooms; a spread of green quiet, dotted only by the : _giggles_ : and : _nestling_ : of sleepy dragons. “Were you able to get a good read on Shunrei’s chi?”

“Good enough, I think.” Hakkai leaned against the other side of the frame, green eyes only glancing at him; voice low enough that the two arguing over the palace floorplans back by the snack table should think they were only discussing Hakuryuu’s visit with the local dragon flock, or the burning shade of the moon. “The flow of her energies is different from yours. Much smoother, I doubt she needs more than a light dose of _mononoke-ha_ once in a while to stave off headaches. But not nearly as powerful.” The monocle glinted. “So. It is... or I should say, you are... as you suspected.”

Sanzo leaned hard on emotionless stone. Easier to feel that against his skin than the : _concern_ : and : _wonder_ : from the man beside him. “You’re not... upset.”

“I am a child of Shangri-La,” Hakkai noted. “We know that souls can be born into new bodies. And sometimes a soul is born into a body that doesn’t fit it as well as it should, and- people _change_. By the grace of the Goddess, or bloodshed, or the simple need to protect another.” He shrugged. “Gojyo wasn’t born here; I’m not sure how he survived, when there’s not a trace of youkai genes on Earth. But if he is right, if all born of Shangri-La have a trace of other... then something I overheard in Ni’s lab finally makes sense. Ni’s problem wasn’t getting me to change. It was overcoming Gonou’s efforts to stop it.” Hakkai glanced down. “I suppose... to Gonou it was much like a cancer sweeping through my body. Instead of just latent youkai genes finally expressing themselves when I was - stressed enough.”

Sanzo blinked. Reran in his head exactly what he’d unearthed in Ni’s lab computers before he’d found Gojyo’s prison cell, and let it mingle with the folklore of Shangri-La that whispered in his dreams. “People... in the middle of a battle. Or a disaster. Or - who go to the temples and pray....”

“Sometimes change,” Hakkai finished. “To youkai, or kami. Even if they’re of Kanzeon’s Favored, sometimes.” He hesitated. “I think that’s what happened to you, after Koumyou died.”

_Kami_. He’d suspected it for... heh. Almost as long as he’d been alive, this time. Because the only way kami genes could have activated under that stress was if they were already _there_. And the only way an Earth-born human could have gotten kami genes spliced into his DNA was.... “No one gets through the Five Gorges alive.”

“...Are you angry?”

Sanzo snorted. _Angry_ didn’t come close to cutting it. “Just trying to think how those idiots back at the temple would sputter if they knew they were being ordered around by a two-year-old.”

That startled a chuckle out of the healer. “You’re not, you know. Not really. Oh, chronologically, that body, yes. But physically - I’d say twenty, about? Old enough to have some sense.”

“Young enough somebody back at the SGC should have _noticed_ , damn it,” Sanzo growled.

“Ah! But the chakra’s very distracting,” Hakkai smiled. “And the scowling. And - well, the gunfire.”

“The hag probably counted on that.” Sanzo was not going to put a fist into the wall. He’d known this already, there wasn’t any point in getting pissed off….

“It’s as if she was always sure the SGC would come back.” Hakkai’s voice only sounded light. “Or do you think, if you had by some miracle survived the Five Gorges, you would have been able to save the rest of Gojyo’s teammates by getting there sooner?”

Damn it. Hakkai was as sharp as his claws. “It’s stupid,” Sanzo gritted out. “They were in the Centipede Clan castle. With Ni ruling the lab. I needed contacts to get in there. Weapons, intel, enough local customs in my head not to get my throat slit just walking in, Koumyou _trained me_ by dealing with petty clan squabbles first before we ever got _near_ that kind of danger-”

“And of course SG-1 wouldn’t have needed any of that,” Hakkai mused. “They’re the god-slayers, after all. Even the System Lords fear them.” He paused. “O’Neill must be a very confident man to rattle you so deeply. I don’t think I like him.”

“Hakkai,” Sanzo said flatly. “No.”

Green eyes glanced at him, ruefully tolerant. “I’m not going to hurt him, Sanzo. I wouldn’t waste your efforts, or try to ruin the Merciful Goddess’ attempt at an alliance. I just don’t like him.”

“Your privilege,” Sanzo stated, not bothering to hide his relief. “I’m just… tired, I guess.” He winced, as Goku’s usual : _little-brother-nyah_ : at Gojyo turned to needle-prickly : _irritation_.:

Gojyo was tapping their hologram of the palace, grinning toothily as any dragon. “Look again, squirt. The map totally says that door should be here.”

“No it doesn’t!” Goku jabbed a light-wall. “There’s nothing there!”

“Which is how we know something _is_ there,” Gojyo smirked. “Hasn’t anyone ever taught you about reading between the lines, brat?”

“Don’t call me a brat, you cockroach-waterbug-”

“Have either of you checked how thick the walls are?” Sanzo snarled.

Hands tangled in each other’s hair, their younger idiots glanced his way. And eeped.

“Check it. Now,” Sanzo demanded, revolver aimed. “Because the last time I looked, SG-1 was right next door, and if I end up putting a bullet through one of them because I was aiming at _you_ , I will be very. Ticked. _Off_.”

Eyes on him, Gojyo and Goku disentangled themselves. Swearing, yes – but under their breath, and moving, so who cared?

“It has been a long day,” Hakkai allowed, putting an arm out the window so Hakuryuu could land easily, and carrying a tired dragon over to the snacks. “Even without the usual assassins.”

“Kougaiji’s been quiet too long,” Sanzo said darkly, picking the chocolate peel off one of the cherry-lemon fruit candies Goku had missed. And there was another thing he wanted to get out of Kanzeon, where and when had she gotten cacao trees off Earth? If it was real chocolate, and not something alien entirely. “He’s got to be up to something.” And being around youkai was contagious, because he had to consciously not growl. “I think I finally figured out why Kanzeon hasn’t pinned Houtou Castle down, though.”

“Yeah?” Gojyo bounced back, now that the threat of imminent death was staved off. “I mean, I’ve heard Goa’uld can miss pretty big things on a planet, but she always struck me as smarter than that.”

Sanzo nodded. “Koushu’s got the Muten sutra.”

“The sutra that rules nothingness, and buries targets in darkness-” Hakkai cut himself off. “You think it might have a way to block normal sensors?”

“Would explain why we can’t find her,” Sanzo said shortly. “And why Kougaiji’s bunch tend to teleport. If he leaves someone he can sense there as a marker – doesn’t matter what sensors get blocked, he can find home.”

Gojyo grabbed a salty thick potato-like chip; purple, but otherwise fine. “And you didn’t figure this out before, oh mighty leader, because...?”

Sanzo snorted. “When’s the last time we had a few free days to do the damn research?”

“So we need to grab Kougaiji the next time and go with him!” Goku smacked a fist into his palm.

“Not that simple, monkey,” Gojyo started. And paused, an odd respect crossing his face. “Actually, it could be that simple. As long as it’s all of us. Not bad.”

“Hmm.” Sanzo nibbled the last of the chocolate shards, now picking apart the gold-and-ruby sections inside. These were the really good part of the candy, in a whole different way from chocolate-bitterness. The acid bite of citrus and cherry and sweetness tingled, made some of the knots in his shoulders loosen….

And he could almost hear Hakkai taking notes in his head about adding those candies to their road supplies. Because gods forbid the thousand-slayer should miss a chance to mother him.

Hakuryuu thumped onto his shoulder, one claw full of fried fish. : _Silly flock-leader. Needs to eat_.:

“I know, damn it,” Sanzo bit out. “If Kanzeon built my code from scratch, why am I so damned _buggy?_ ”

Dead silence.

Sanzo chomped the rest of the candy, just to hold back the swearing. Right. Hakkai knew, because the healer knew everything about his damn trick metabolism. But Goku hadn’t known. And from the way he was staring, Gojyo definitely hadn’t known.

“No one gets through the Five Gorges alive,” Sanzo stated, eyeing Gojyo’s slack-jawed stare. “I’m… like the Hua sisters. Only it looks like Kanzeon took the chance to tuck in extra, surprise, you’re a kami genes. To go off when I got _stressed_. Which, who’d have thought, I managed to do getting you jokers out of the Maoh’s castle. And the rest is history. Or maybe xenobiology. Got it?”

Gojyo shook his head. Thumped a knuckle off his own skull, as if checking that his brains were still rattling around inside. “You’re a… you were… damn.” He smirked. “Always thought you were too young for a Ph.D.”

Goku sat up straight, brows scrunched in worry. “You mean you didn’t know?”

The heck? “You mean you did?” Sanzo demanded.

“Well… yeah?” Goku scratched the hair by his limiter, uncertain. “You smell like power. Like one of the Heavenly Army. The really powerful ones.” He frowned. “Only not just like that. Like Lady Miaoshan, too. Kami from a long time ago.”

“Wait.” Gojyo’s glance bounced between them. “There’s a real Lady Miaoshan? Not just Kanzeon?”

Sanzo almost hid a smirk.

“Oh, you evil, evil priest,” Gojyo snickered. “And I thought only Hakkai was getting his licks in to break their brains.” He rubbed his hands together. “So when do we meet her? Is she pretty?”

“I’m not sure how to answer that,” Sanzo reflected, folding his hands as if to chant in pious meditation. “She’s centuries old. Eternal as the Temple of the Setting Sun itself. Her beauty is found most in her wisdom.”

Gojyo squinted at him. “You could just say she’s an old hag. Sheesh.”

Bless Hakkai’s straight face. The healer was not obviously : _giggling_.:

Goku stifled his giggle behind his fingers, and one of the most obviously faked coughs ever. Face red, he dove for one of the juice pitchers, shoulders still shaking.

“Chew before you inhale, monkey.” Gojyo shook his head in patented big-brother disbelief, and eyed Hakkai. “Okay, that’s your _up to something_ look. What gives?”

“Oh, nothing very important….”

Sanzo stiffened. This was going to be bad. Or embarrassing. Or both.

“But now that we all know you are kami, Sanzo - I think you ought to take advantage of that fact.” Hakkai smiled. “Shall we try a beginner’s chi lesson?”

Oh yes. Bad _and_ embarrassing. Argh.

* * *

Daniel woke from an uneasy slumber in a soft bed, pillows scented with vanilla and lavender. Something had been vibrating. Under his hand. And he could have sworn he’d heard someone swearing. “Jack?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Jack slipped out of his own bed, though, and used the butt of his heavy-duty flashlight to pound on the wall. “Hey! Enough with the explosions! Some people are trying to _sleep_.”

Under Daniel’s fingers, the vibrations stopped.

“Explosions?” Daniel hissed. “Jack, shouldn’t we…?”

“Not on your life.” Jack’s grin glinted in the moonlight. “Those guys are Kanzeon’s problem. And I hope they keep her up nights.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Meatball surgeon” is military jargon for a surgeon trained in combat medicine. AKA “how to patch seriously injured people up enough that they can survive getting transported to a hospital away from the fighting”. Hence Jack’s use of the term “meatball” for Sanzo’s… aggressive counseling skills. 
> 
> Note that Sanzo as a more-or-less clone of Konzen’s host, the first real successful “Furling foster parent”, is an example of the classic Trope: Flawed Prototype. Hence the ragged temper, precarious biochemistry, and an immune system with enough quirks to justify a healer keeping an eye on him _all the time._
> 
> …Which, actually, a lot of good SG fics have Janet doing with SG-1, specifically because their systems have been challenged with so much alien exposure that they could have potentially life-threatening reactions to things most people take completely in stride. In fact, it’s canon that Sam rates a special file all to herself, because the traces Jolinar left in her system means she’s much more resistant to – among other things – anything with an anesthetic effect. Meaning if she had to go under ordinary surgery? She’d be likely to wake up on the operating table. _Ouch._
> 
> Most modern kami have had a lot of those rough edges in their DNA smoothed out. But Kanzeon kept Konzen’s as-is regardless, because he successfully bonded to Goku. She wasn’t about to mess with anything that might have affected that!


	10. Asking for it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack asks questions, and gets answers.
> 
> ...One of these days, he may learn not to do that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure when I'll get back to this - the emotional upheaval in this story means I need to be a lot calmer than RL is currently letting me be. But this chapter is done, so.

“Okay.” Jack drummed his fingers on the same garden chair again; apparently Kanzeon didn’t feel like messing with a working setup this morning. Or maybe she just liked watching the youkai kids run Sanzo’s bunch ragged. He was not ruling out the possibility of both. “We’re working on a preliminary list of ‘if we decide to play nice, this is what we’re interested in.’ Some of that’s medical stuff. Some of it’s information. We poked the Stargate, found Abydos, figured we’d fixed the problem with a nuke in Ra’s face, and got a nasty surprise two years later. And we keep _getting_ nasty surprises, because looks like every so-called intelligent species in the galaxy has had at least a few thousand years to step on each other’s toes and double-cross the next guy on the block. We’d really, really like some _history_ to dig into. Not just playing catch-up with current events.”

“History instead of weapons?” Kanzeon arched an interested brow.

“Hey, when it comes to the small-scale stuff, really not that impressed with Goa’uld weapons,” Jack said easily. “Zats aren’t exactly multi-purpose force escalation; not when you’ve got guns instead. Force shields don’t stop a knife. And when you talk staff weapons – precision aim, they aren’t.”

“Oh, zing.” Kanzeon clapped a hand to her sun-disk. “I have to admit I agree with you. Zats have their uses, but when you have people who can manipulate energy all around them, you might as well be throwing feathers.”

Erk. Okay. That explained a _lot_ of how Sanzo’s bunch were armed.

“History’s good. I’m very curious about yours. And I’m interested in a bit of medical exchange myself,” Kanzeon allowed. “Healing devices and our other medical technology can work a few miracles, but what I know about your surgery promises much more.”

“Surgery.” Jack blinked. “You want surgeons?”

Sam winced. “You don’t want to use a healing device when foreign objects are still inside someone, sir.”

Ah. Yeah. That made a lot of sense. “Add that to the list,” Jack noted. “And as far as zatarc devices go….” He sat up a little straighter. “I’m going to go out on a limb here, and say we can both work with Thor, right?”

“He’s not always easy to get hold of, but I’d agree,” Kanzeon nodded.

“So….” Jack spread empty hands. “What say we ask _him_ to hang onto it, if we get it?”

Kanzeon leaned a little to the side, studying him. “I’m listening.”

“We don’t want you hanging onto it,” Jack said bluntly. “We don’t want the Tok’ra hanging onto it. And honestly? We don’t want the SGC hanging onto it, because we have some homegrown idiots who’d think programming people like fire and forget missiles is the _best idea ever_. No thanks.” He glanced toward the kids. “And it seems to me trying to poke stuff that plays with empathic minds, on a planet stuffed full of empaths, falls into the category of _bad idea_.”

Behind Kanzeon’s divan, Goujun snorted. “He has you there, my lady.”

“So Earth has its own idiots?” Kanzeon mused. “Damn. And I was hoping the Ancients were the problem.” She rolled her eyes. “Then again, Tollans were Earth-native too, once. Maybe it’s the whole wiping out your ecosystem and relying on vat-born food that warps the brain. If you don’t have to deal with a hunt gone wrong, or a crop that fails because Nature can be a vindictive hail-raining mother, you think you can control _everything_.”

“The Tollans can be good people,” Sam interjected.

“System Lords can be half-decent, under the right circumstances, Major.” Kanzeon shrugged, silks shimmering. “Neither of us is relying on the other to be good people. We’re relying on the fact that we have a mutual interest in _not dying_.”

From the way Sam hid a wince, yeah, she remembered the Tollan attitude about potential threats from Goa’uld, too. High Chancellor Travell hadn’t believed Zipacna was going to sabotage Tollana’s ion cannons until it actually happened. If it hadn’t been for that sweet little Nox lady Lya hiding one, Tollana would have been burning cinders.

Daniel cleared his throat. “This is just an observation, but… are we really sure that what we want is a treaty?”

“Danny?” Jack asked, almost casual. Because yeah, he knew his team had problems with System Ladies, especially Queens. But usually Daniel wouldn’t shoot a negotiation in the foot without warning him first.

“I was just thinking. Since you mentioned the NID.” And Daniel was frowning behind his glasses – but it was a _thinking_ frown, not a ‘going to blow stuff up’ one. “A treaty’s supposed to be binding on both sides. But we both have hostile groups that might decide to put a wrench in things. NID, Gyokumen Koushu - realistically? We can’t _stop_ a treaty from being violated. I mean, maybe if we have a really loose one, one that says ‘we’ll try to play nice, but recognize we both have idiots’ - that could work. But it won’t be an alliance. So… we need something else.”

“Do you have something else?” Kanzeon wondered.

Daniel wet his lips. “What about an embassy? On both sides? And maybe setting up a visa program?”

“Huh.” Jack turned that idea over in his head, thumped it for any obvious sharp edges. “That… could work. Maybe.”

“Let me see if I understand what you’re suggesting.” Kanzeon wove her fingers together, all her attention on the archaeologist. “We each – on either side of the ‘Gate – pick out people we think could visit hopefully without blowing each other to bits. Presumably, we forward info on these people to the other side, so they can get a yes or a no. And then we let the yes-votes go through the ‘Gate, warning them that the other side is another planet, people do things differently there, and idiots are likely to get shot or otherwise mangled and tossed into jail if they’re lucky. So our embassies can talk to the other side in real-time, without needing to open a ‘Gate just to complain about the bugs in the food. Is that about what you had in mind?”

“Hopefully with less mangling. But, yes.” Daniel raised his eyebrows at Jack.

“Huh.” Jack shrugged at Kanzeon. “We’ll have to run it past Hammond. And I’m thinking we’re going to want to send people as groups, at first. Individual visas would be just _asking_ for trouble. But what do you think about giving it a try? For… maybe three months? Subject to change depending on if people are dying horribly.”

“Hmm.” Blue-violet slid half-closed, eyeshadow casting back the faintest shimmers of sun. “Would Captain Sha count as embassy personnel? I know he may still have living relatives on Earth. It’d be a shame if he couldn’t see them.”

Huh. Sanzo’s little band of troubleshooters ranked _very_ high on Kanzeon’s list of “people to be looked after”, then. Which Jack had pretty much figured, given the whole _Sanzo has my nephew’s soul_ thing. But if Sha was included in Kanzeon’s short list – interesting. “I think the general could swing that,” Jack said judiciously. “He already assigned Sha to Sanzo. Making him part of an embassy? Why not?” He paused. “Fair warning, though. Janet’s going to want to stick everybody with lots and lots of needles before we let people loose on Earth. Especially Sanzo. I don’t know if a kami can catch chicken pox and I sure as hell don’t want to find out the hard way.”

Kanzeon inclined her head, a flicker of amusement in the curve of her lips. “Then I think we might have a basis for an agreement, Colonel. Shall we take a break? After lunch we can write up what we think we’ve agreed to, and see if we all say the words mean the same thing.”

Zing. But sharp. And a heck of an improvement on everybody assuming everyone meant the same thing. “Just one question.”

“Just one?” Kanzeon smirked.

Ha. “I see where Sanzo gets the sense of humor,” Jack said wryly. “Only his has more bullets. And speaking of.” He nodded toward the far windows opening from the garden on a corridor of the palace, where a good eye - especially _Teal’c’s_ good eyes - could make out a few more armed guards holding posts behind strategic furnishings. “Good as we are, I don’t think you have that much heavily armed security set up for just us. What gives?”

“If it were your team I was worried about, Colonel, I’m not sure half the Heavenly Army would be enough.” The Queen’s lips thinned in a delicate frown. “For the same reason Sanzo’s going to be chewing through the furnishings if negotiations take too many more days. Koushu’s been quiet.”

“Too quiet?” Daniel nodded slowly. “And Prince Kougaiji has youkai followers who can teleport.”

“Not many, but he has them,” Kanzeon agreed. “And Goujun worries.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time the Heavenly Palace has been attacked,” the dragon-folk huffed. “I still have nightmares of the _last_ time. Particularly given-” Fanged jaws shut, as if he knew he’d said too much.

“Yes, you did write a report on the last time, didn’t you?” Kanzeon mused. Tilted a glance at Jack, all silken mischief. “I wonder what you’d make of the holes in security that became obvious that day?”

Funny. For a moment the dragon looked _so_ much like Hammond in “what-did-you-do- _now_ -Colonel?” mode.

“Make sure they get a copy, would you?” Kanzeon stood and stretched, obviously just as glad as the rest of them to drop out of heavy negotiation mode for a bit. “After all, I know the Tok’ra have given you their version of what happened.” For one moment, her eyes glowed lethal gold. “And I want you to know why they are never. Setting foot here. Again.” She took a deep, deliberate breath, gold fading back to blue-violet. “I’d ask that you not show it to Sanzo. Not yet. Konzen... didn’t die easily.”

Which was still ouch. Though a bit _huh_. “Selmak said he was a clerk,” Jack observed. Which, yeah, risky, but if Kanzeon had just as cranky a reaction to their mostly friendly Tok’ra as Jolinar did to her, better to find that out now.

“He was a clerk.” Kanzeon’s smile was fond, if still flushed with old anger. “No weapons. No military training. Barely any training in psychokinesis; the lab archives gave us enough pointers to get the youkai started, and they’d built up a few centuries of teachings. But kami are _different_. It was like trying to learn aikido out of a book. Everything was guesswork back then. So yes. He was a clerk.” She rubbed the side of her jaw. “The Tok’ra never saw it coming.”

* * *

“Actually, kind of makes sense,” Jack mused as they headed back toward Sanzo’s bunch. “Stuck as a Goa’uld paper-pusher ‘cause no one knows how to train what you’ve got? Centuries of pent-up _kill_ right there.”

“Jack,” Daniel murmured, glancing a warning at Kanzeon’s team. _We know they hear better than we do_.

“I know, I know....” Jack took a few strides ahead, just so he could crouch down and look at the priest half-buried in sleepy youkai cubs. “Aww.”

“Die horribly.” Even at near-whisper level, Sanzo’s voice had its usual snarly edge. And yet....  

_He doesn’t feel angry_. Daniel paused, poking that very odd thought. Because Sanzo didn’t. If dealing with the NID had been a cobra crawling over his foot, whatever Sanzo was doing now was like snuggling up in feathers and silk. Warm, and soft, and _safe_.

“Something else, huh?” Gojyo was grinning, helping Shunrei and Hakkai gently pry little girls off Sanzo’s robes. “Seriously, helps if we have to go find people in a disaster area. Just sit him down for a breather, and the kids run right to him.”

From the incredibly ticked-off look on Sanzo’s face, he could have gone forever without SG-1 finding that out. Daniel tried not to snicker. Honestly.

Though the urge to laugh kind of died when Daniel caught a glimpse of armor spikes, and realized Goku wasn’t helping because Goku was snuggled up against Sanzo’s back, sleeping the rumbly snoring sleep of an opportunistic teenager.

: _Warm-and-safe. My cub. Armed to protect you. Safe_.:

“You ever regret picking him up?” Jack said quietly. “He follows you right into the thick of everything. And what you do’s not safe.”

Daniel tensed, angling so he and Sam could offer a good field of fire if things got ugly. Teal’c was already in a good position if he had to use his staff weapon-

But those violet eyes weren’t angry. More... ruefully accepting. As if Sanzo thought Jack’s question was more than fair. “Life’s not safe,” the priest said bluntly. “If I kept him off the battlefield - even if I could, which maybe enough steel chains to hold down a tractor-trailer _might_ do it - Koushu would just go after him. Because I am who I am. Genjyo Sanzo, thirty-first heir of the Maten and Seiten sutras. And she can’t get the Maten without going through me. Kougaiji can teleport. Anyone I leave behind is a target.”

Jack nodded once, face grave.

“...I hate it when he gets hurt.”

“You hate it when any of us get hurt,” Hakkai said quietly. “We’re just usually fond of not being shot, so we pretend not to notice.”

Shunrei muffled a giggle behind her hand. Gojyo didn’t even try to hide a grin.

“What did I do in a past life to deserve this?” Sanzo muttered. Glanced past them, and started getting to his feet. “Wake up, monkey. Here’s someone you don’t want to miss.”

Daniel took a quick look, and felt his pulse speed up. _Goujun’s not with her. Not good_. “Kanzeon Bosatsu? Is there something we missed?”

Sanzo snorted; even as Sam started, and frowned. “That’s not Kanzeon.”

_What?_

“He’s right,” Sam stated, as Teal’c’s eyes narrowed in stoic curiosity. “It’s not. Kanzeon doesn’t have much naquadah... but you don’t have _any_. Who are you?”

“Colonel, SG-1,” Sanzo said formally, rising as Goku grumbled himself awake, “the honorable Lady Miaoshan, former host to Kanzeon Bosatsu.”

He must be going numb to shock, Daniel decided. That had barely rated a _huh_ on the internal _oh bleep_ meter.

Even so. A Tok’ra’s former host? How? Why?

Gojyo was gaping. “You said she was an old hag!”

Sanzo’s smirk could have scared a great white. “I said she had ancient wisdom. _You_ called her an old hag.”

“You- you-!”

Not-Kanzeon _tch_ ed, crossing her arms in a gleam of silk and silver. “So now I can’t pull any twin tricks. Spoil my fun, why don’t you?”

“Would I dream of interfering with the holy plans of the princess who escaped Hell itself?” Sanzo said graciously.

“Oof! Sanbutsushin manners? What have I done to you lately?” Miaoshan looked over SG-1, her gaze slightly different from the Kanzeon they knew. More gentle humor, Daniel thought, and a little less of the sharp edge the Queen had, negotiating for a treaty she hoped would save her people from destruction. “So you’re the nightmares that have System Lords checking under their beds. I am _very_ glad to see you.”

_Less of an edge_ , Daniel thought. _Like the sheath to Kanzeon’s sword. Doesn’t mean she’s not dangerous._

“You were a host?” Sam took a step forward; then glanced at the children. “I’m sorry, we shouldn’t….”

“No, we shouldn’t,” Miaoshan agreed. “Those are dark times to speak of. But we must.” She waved an elegant hand. “Would you permit me the honor of hosting you in my own quarters? You might be more comfortable there.”

Right. So she’d noticed them twitching whenever snaky heads peeked out of the lotus ponds. And watching Sanzo toss some kind of a leather ball to be grabbed, swum with, and chased, had been utterly bizarre.

“Lead the way, Princess.” Jack gave her a half-bow. “I’ve got questions. _So_ many questions.”

* * *

“When am I going to learn to stop asking questions….”

Out of the corner of her eye, Sam saw Daniel pat the colonel on the shoulder. He needed it. Thumping his head on the table like that couldn’t feel good.

Not that she could really blame him, either, as she and Teal’c went through Goujun’s report. What they’d learned from Miaoshan….

Well. It fit with what they’d seen from Jacob taking Selmak as a host, honestly. The Tok’ra offered people a chance to strike back against the System Lords. They were honest about that. They shared control of the host body; they were honest about that, too. They were just a little… fuzzy about certain details. Like how few options operatives had to choose their own missions – or how much operatives were discouraged from maintaining contact with any human friends or family that might still be alive. Human connections were undue influence. A way for Ra and the System Lords to hunt Tok’ra down, and destroy them. A _weakness._

And Miaoshan and Kanzeon had been _deep cover_ operatives. Meaning any time Miaoshan was in control of the body, she _had_ to act like Kanzeon. Or the whole charade would have gone up in smoke.

“I’ll spare you the details of being a Queen, and required to breed,” Miaoshan had said quietly. “Let us only say, I am very, very grateful that my sister-in-mind crafted me a new body, that is only _mine_.”

And that had made even Hakkai blanch a bit at the table, as Sanzo’s team had listened with them. Sam hadn’t been able to hide a shudder, and she didn’t think anybody blamed her. Jolinar had taken over her body, yes. But if she’d been forced to bear larvae-

_I don’t want to think about it. Nope. Never_.

“But she wasn’t free to craft that body – to free me – until the Emperor was dead, and we held power here,” Miaoshan had stated. “So in a way, the Tok’ra attack gave me new life. But what it cost….” Elegant lips thinned, and she shook her head.

Sanzo stood up in a scrape of chair legs. “Right. Come on, people.”

“Wait, what?” Gojyo had been a scrambling half-step behind, glancing between his leader and Miaoshan. “This is a creepy priest thing, isn’t it?”

_“We’re leaving.”_

“Of course it is,” Gojyo sighed. “Well. Was nice while it lasted.”

Goku snatched a few last cookies off the table. “Thanks for the grub!”

Hakkai bowed. “It was pleasant meeting you again, Lady Miaoshan.”

“Try not to murder anyone else who doesn’t deserve it, will you?” Miaoshan smiled. “Meeting someone at their trial is a horrible way to make a first impression. Oh, and make sure you stalk the Heavenly Army a bit. They deserve it.”

“Creepy priest thing?” Jack asked, after the door was closed.

“As I think you’ve guessed, Colonel, based on your very pushy imagery… under certain specific circumstances, with certain people, at _very_ close range - Sanzo is telepathic.” Miaoshan shrugged. “It’s a necessary, but not sufficient, capability to establish a bond as a Furling foster parent.”

“No wonder he hates people,” Sam had breathed.

“Oh, yes,” Miaoshan had said practically. “But it does come in handy for… certain situations. Such as this one.” Her eyes were grave; almost cold. “So far as we know, Goku doesn’t remember what happened nine centuries ago. We think it’s a defensive measure, and he will remember, eventually. But until he does, we intend to avoid mentioning anything that might remind him of Konzen’s death.” She’d looked Jack straight in the eye. “Dragon-General Goujun wrote the reports on that incident. One for official eyes, in case our coup didn’t work and Kanzeon failed to hold the planet.” She’d held up another tablet. “This… is the true one.”

Which was the report Sam and Teal’c were going through right now, with Daniel dipping in from time to time to help translate the stray bits of Ancient that had worked their way into the linguistic mix. That, and to just give them a breather every five or ten minutes, because some of Goujun’s description of the events had been purely _brutal_.

_“The Heavenly traveler Egan found the child Goku in the state of Toujyoushin Gouraikoku, at the top of the mountain Kaikasan, born from a rock,”_ Goujun’s report read. _“Those were the facts as he knew them, and as Konzen Douji was told. Though the Merciful Goddess did inform her nephew that the boy was not a youkai heretic, but a creature born of the world itself._

_“If you are reading this, my Lady, I wish you had warned your child of the truth of Goku’s nature. Perhaps he would have been more cautious, sooner… or perhaps it would only have brought the catastrophe on us all the more quickly….”_

“Oooookay.” Jack braced his hands on their table, sitting up. “Let’s see if I’ve got this straight. Kanzeon _arranges_ for Konzen to meet Goku, and snap, it takes, guy’s suddenly stuck with a not-quite-youkai kid who sticks to him like a little monkey and causes as much havoc as… well. A twelve-year-old kid getting crayons for the first time. Which is _a lot_.”

Sam nodded, looking over one of the few images in the report; a photo that had demanded her DNA before it’d let her look. Konzen sprawled on the floor surrounded by paperwork, looking like the most bemused older brother ever, with a much younger Goku curled up and sleeping on top of colored scribbles and paper airplanes.

_He looks like Sanzo. If Sanzo wore silk and longer hair_.

Though if Sanzo’s body was Konzen’s clone… she wasn’t going to think about that too much.

“Only this guy Li Touten decides he wants his own Super Special Kanzeon-blend critter, and uses smuggled cell samples and Tok’ra help to create things that,” Jack grimaced, “are more kami than Furling, but a lot more Furling than Kanzeon’s kami. Meaning most of them aren’t human-shaped, and almost all of them are whacked-out insane. And he starts turning loose the failed ones as monsters on Shangri-La so the Heavenly Army starts looking like ineffective wussies.”

“I would like to learn more of this Field Marshal Tenpou,” Teal’c observed. “He appears to have been a most creative Goa’uld warrior.”

“Creative but outnumbered, and losing people,” Jack said grimly. “So Li Touten shows up with his special brew – this Nataku – and… lets the Emperor set the kid on hunting down the failed experiments. There should be a particularly hot and nasty spot in Hell, just for him.”

“Only he must not have known what empathy really means, because Nataku and Goku found each other,” Daniel agreed. “And since Goku managed to make friends with the Field Marshal and this General Kenren, Konzen got yanked out of his paperwork and started putting pieces together.”

Sam flipped through a few pages. “Nataku was sent after Gyumaoh, came back hurt, and then things really started going to pieces. Konzen – oof.” Sam sucked in a breath. “Goujun’s pretty sure Konzen figured out Li Touten was either going to tell the Emperor Goku was too dangerous to live, or try to snake the kid into his own control. He tried to do damage control on that, play up that Goku was just an annoying kid, absolutely harmless….”

“And then Li Touten ordered Nataku to kill the only friend he had,” Daniel finished, very quietly.

“Which went into complete and utter _fubar_ when the _empathic Furling kid_ reacted to his best friend bleeding out on the floor by going batshit homicidal insane,” Jack bit out.

“It is,” Teal’c noted, “a most impressive casualty count.”

“I was kind of more impressed that Kanzeon managed to punch him out,” Jack mused. “And then Konzen punched _her_ out. The paper-pushing bureaucrat versus the mighty Tok’ra deep-cover spy. Oh, to have been a fly on that wall.”

“And, long story short, it ended,” Sam swallowed, “with everyone dead.”

“No. Not everyone, Major.” Jack fixed her with a determined look. “Goku lived. His friends, his foster parent – they put their lives on the line so Goku would make it. And he did. They beat the odds.”

“And saved no few of their subordinates,” Teal’c agreed. “They were truly honorable.”

“Don’t let anybody who can identify you live,” Jack mused. “As last orders go, Field Marshal Tenpou’s is a doozy.” He locked his fingers behind his head a moment to stretch out frustration, then looked them all over. “So… which are we more worried about? The fact that this Tok’ra Kamou seems to have had the kind of ethics that would make Apophis think eww? Or the fact that Konzen’s little escape route looks very, very familiar?”

“I believe it is most likely Kanzeon approves of our having Sanzo’s escape route, O’Neill,” Teal’c stated. “She would not have given us a report that illuminated its security flaws if she did not.”

Jack nodded thoughtfully. “See, that’s what worries me. Kanzeon left this little way out in place, for nine centuries? And _didn’t_ upgrade it?”

Sam shivered. “You think it’s a trap?”

“No,” the colonel said after a long moment to think. “No, not exactly. Not that she’s not twisty enough to do that, but… I think this is _Sanzo’s_ way out.” He glanced over them all. “And what does Sanzo have that we don’t have?”

“The ‘Gate key-” Sam cut herself off. “No. The sutra.”

“Fifty-fifty odds he gave us what he thinks he needs to open the escape route,” Jack stated. “Only Kanzeon made some alterations that aren’t on the plan. It’s what I’d do.”

“Jack?” Daniel fidgeted, uncertain.

“If I were a System Lord in charge of a planet, negotiating with some very dangerous customers who might or might not have a lethal and unreasonable hate of body-jumping parasites, I’d set up a way out like this,” Jack elaborated. “Gives me a second opinion on my instinct to smite now, pay later. If we go on the run and Sanzo likes us, he’ll help us get out. If we bolt and Sanzo doesn’t like us, we run into whatever the new trap is. Bam, so sad, gone without a trace.”

Whoof. And yet, the colonel laying out that grim option made Sam feel much better. Kanzeon was very, _very_ charming. It was good not to be the only person who couldn’t trust that. “As far as the Tok’ra Kamou goes, sir….”

Jack raised an inquiring brow.

Sam looked at her report, and made a decision. “Sir, I believe this report is probably biased. If nothing else, Goujun is Kanzeon’s general and he obviously respects her. But.” She wet her lips. “We know the Tok’ra tried to kill Goku, and they’ve admitted they tried to take Kanzeon out to get access to alien technology. Even if this account is biased, it gives us good information to start asking the High Council questions.”

The colonel nodded. “Daniel?”

“There’s no such thing as an objective author,” their archaeologist stated. “But there are objective facts. Selmak claimed he shot Konzen to shoot Goku. Goujun’s report states that based on the security recordings, the unknown Tok’ra infiltrator obviously _thought_ he’d shot some of Konzen’s party. Only Konzen managed to block the blast, and fling an illusion back that locked the Tok’ra in his own head long enough for them to escape. We’ve seen Sanzo knock people catatonic, and Kanzeon as much as told us people with psychokinesis can _deflect zat blasts_.” He reached out, almost touching the tablet. “I think this is plausible. I’m not sure all of it’s true, but based on what we do know, I’m willing to believe the bare bones are accurate: Konzen was trying to do the right thing and take care of Goku, and everything blew up in his face.”

Jack nodded again. “Teal’c?”

“I do not believe the Dragon General has reason to deceive us,” Teal’c said thoughtfully. “Kanzeon Bosatsu may, and he is her loyal general; Lady Miaoshan may as well, for it would seem she felt herself deceived by the Tok’ra, and may bear them ill will. But as your Earth scholars have put it, why should one deceive when the truth is damaging enough?”

Ouch. Though that _Kanzeon may have reason to deceive us_ let Sam put a finger on what had bothered her about the talks this morning. “You never even brought up her ‘Gate-locking technology, sir.”

“Yeah, well, call me a hopeless Stone-Age anti-tech guy, but I have the nagging feeling that letting a System Lady reprogram Earth’s ‘Gate falls right into the category of _lethally stupid_ ,” Jack shrugged. “Maybe when we get to know each other better. Maybe. Until then? The iris is _our_ tech. We know what it works on, and what it doesn’t. Might as well stick with that until _we_ know how to program the ‘Gates.” He looked over them all. “Okay, so we’re going with a tentative ‘this might be true’ on Goujun’s report. That said – anybody think we ought to change up any of the terms we discussed with the snake lady?”

“As long as we underline that we want access to historical records, I think this is the best arrangement we can start with,” Daniel reflected. “It’s not like trying to make an agreement with Orban, or even the Tollans. Kanzeon’s _not human_. Her people aren’t all human, or even Goa’uld. We’re going to find a lot of places we have misunderstandings; not just from different cultures, but from different biology. We should start slow. Very slow.”

“We did not ‘start slow’ with the Asgard, Daniel Jackson,” Teal’c pointed out.

“Yeah, but Thor likes us,” Jack grinned. “And we kind of made an entrance, with the whole dialing-another-galaxy shtick. Nothing like a first impression.”

“The System Lords have been our enemies since we ran into Ra,” Daniel nodded. “And Kanzeon is a System Lord. Even if she were completely trustworthy, we’d need time to believe it. So… let’s get that time.”

“All right then.” Jack rubbed his hands together. “Let’s get writing.”

* * *

Standing in the sunlight in Kanzeon’s gardens, Goku inhaled, and grinned. “This way!”

“Damn it, Goku!” Sanzo was doing his best to keep up, but with the scent of peaches in his nose, Goku didn’t feel like slowing down. Besides, this was the Heavenly Palace; if Sanzo wasn’t safe here, he wasn’t safe anywhere. “If I have to handle weeping _kami_ gardeners, I’m going to make you help them weed!”

Shyeah, right, Goku thought, taking off into the trees. Like even kami gardeners could make him stay somewhere boring.

Then again, if Sanzo got really ticked, Sanzo would be weeding right along with him, even if it bored him to the point of wanting to shoot people. So Goku would _have_ to stay.

Which was a really, really dirty trick. Had to be. Hakkai and Gojyo both approved of it, which meant it had to be downright _evil_.

But evil would come later. Right now, there were peaches.

He’d slurped his way through three before Sanzo caught up below. “Of course,” Sanzo grumbled. “I could lead you off a cliff with a peach.”

“No way!” Gauging where Sanzo’s hands were, Goku dropped a good one toward his head. “I stopped falling for that _years_ back.”

Sanzo snatched ripe fruit from the air, sighed again as Goku tossed a few more toward Hakkai and Gojyo. “Fruit is not enough for lunch, monkey.”

“Nope!” Goku agreed. “But it’s high enough up here to see a few things.” Such as a few formal black uniforms, all with the insignia of Heaven’s Western Army. He thought they might be from one specific unit, but he didn’t know enough about Heaven’s insignia to be sure.

Petting the dragon taking an inquisitive nibble of his own peach, Hakkai laughed softly. “Are they still following us?”

“They keep switching out one or two guys once in a while, but yeah. Seems like… maybe a dozen of ‘em, all together?” Goku peered down through the leaves. “I dunno, Hakkai. I don’t think they’re scared of us. They seem a lot more just… curious, you know?” And : _wondering_ ,: and maybe even : _sad_.: Like they’d been missing someone a long, long time.

“We could just corner them and talk to them,” Gojyo pointed out.

“No.”

Goku frowned down. That was a really quick _no_. Like something had stung Sanzo with bad memories when he wasn’t looking. “What’s wrong? I kind of like it up here. And they live with Kanzeon, and Goujun. I bet they’re okay.”

“Maybe.”

“Sanzo.” And now Hakkai sounded worried. “What is it?”

“O’Neill hasn’t shot Kanzeon.”

Gojyo clapped the hand not full of half a peach to his forehead. “You know, most people would say that was a good thing.”

Violet eyes had gone dangerously squinty. “O’Neill hasn’t even _threatened_ to shoot Kanzeon.”

“Oh boy,” Hakkai said faintly.

Goku traded a glance with Gojyo, who looked like he wanted to climb right up into the tree with him. Which just showed that the kappa did have good ideas, sometimes. “You mean… Kanzeon hasn’t done anything to make him want to shoot at her?”

“Not _yet_.”

“Room up there for one more, monkey?” Gojyo said ruefully. “I don’t think I want to be at ground zero when what she’s planning goes boom.”

“Hmm.” Hakkai scratched the back of his head by the headband, smiling.

Goku’s nape prickled. That was Hakkai being : _gleefully sneaky_.: This could be fun. Or, well, bloody. But that could be fun too. Sometimes.

“Oh, no,” Gojyo said firmly. “No _hmm_. Hakkai, whatever you’re thinking, whatever you’re smiling about – _no_.”

“No?” Hakkai said innocently. “But I thought you’d like some extra explosives on hand. Given what you’ve told me about SG-1 and their propensity for falling into rapidly closing corridors.”

“I could give a flying flip about their propensities for – wait.” Gojyo backed up against the near-black peach trunk, suspicious. “Where are you going to get explosives?”

Hakkai’s grin held honest mischief. “Why, I thought I’d _ask_ for them.”

* * *

_Mwhah-ha-hah!_

Watching a dozen spy monitors at once, Kanzeon rubbed her hands in glee, idly noting Jiroshin grab for the nearest pot of headache tea. Aww, the poor guy. Getting shaken out of his routine was _good_ for him. Good for all of the Heavenly Palace, really.

_Especially the ducklings_.

Not that she’d call Rikuou and the rest of the First Unit sneaking around keeping an eye on Sanzo’s party _ducklings_. At least, not without Goujun around to be grimly sympathetic to the poor youngsters.

_But they’re so cute to watch!_

Cute, and adaptable, given what she’d put them through for having the nerve to die before she’d solidified her grasp on the throne. And patient. Once she’d revived them, she’d given them the straight-up facts. Tenpou and Kenren had died almost as nasty deaths as Konzen. She’d only been able to retrieve parts of their souls. Furling science said reincarnation was possible, but it could take _centuries_.

To a man, the First Unit had sworn it didn’t matter. They’d serve her, and wait.

“After all,” Rikuou had grinned at her, centuries ago, flipping back newly red hair, “General Kenren said Goku was like a son. How could we abandon the kid now?”

_I love those guys_ , Kanzeon thought fondly, watching Hakkai approach Rikuou now and gently persuade him to allow Sanzo’s bunch a glimpse of an armory. She could almost taste the mingled shock and glee in the unit commander’s soul; so close to those he’d cared for, and yet so far.

Half-closing her eyes, she reached out for the _sense_ of Rikuou and the others.

: _Alive, they’re alive,_ : Rikuou sighed in relief. : _Konzen has a gun? And looks like he knows what he’s doing with the grenades, this is going to be scary-awesome_....:

: _Aww, Goku’s up to our shoulders now!_ : Yuutetsu was hiding a grin. : _Looks pretty sane, whew, let’s not mess with that. Those records of the throne room are scary_....:

Jyouei was almost dancing. : _The Field Marshal’s robbing our grenade bin. Heeee!_ :

Carefully, Kanzeon crept around the suspicious prickle of Sanzo’s mind, the warm beacon of Goku’s. : _You boys might want to tone it down a little_ ,: she murmured to the unit. : _Sanzo’s not quite tuned into this frequency yet - he doesn’t know kami, not yet - but he can feel you._ :

: _Merciful Goddess!_ : Rikuou gave her a mental knuckle-bump, almost glowing with happiness. Behind him she could sense reliable, shy Souko holding shields so the rest of his unit’s glee didn’t unnerve Sanzo too much. : _They’re alive! Though Kenren looks so weird with long hair_...:

: _Patience._ : She ruffled mental fingers through his glee, enjoying the spiky warmth. : _I have a plan, but we need a little more time_ -:

“Merciful Goddess!” Jiroshin gasped.

Kanzeon blinked, pulling back to herself, gaze sweeping across the monitors for whatever Jiroshin was-

_Oh. That’s not good_.

* * *

Jack flinched, glancing up from a three-quarters-written draft agreement at an unmistakable _boom_. “We’ve got trouble.” _And I should have given Sha a radio, it’s not like the Goa’uld couldn’t take that tech apart from a half-dozen other places we’ve been_ -

The report tablet buzzed. “Colonel.” Sanzo’s voice was clipped, and just a little breathless; Jack could hear the sounds of a bunch of people double-timing it, with at least one swearing mightily. “Something broke through the anti-teleport fields on the north side of the Heavenly Palace.”

A roar shook the room.

“Make that a lot of somethings,” Sanzo snarled. “We’re responding with the First Unit. Koushu’s made a move and _I want to kill something.”_

“Room for a few more?” Jack said lightly, glancing at the rest of his team. Who dropped the papers and grabbed their gear, even if Daniel was shaking his head ruefully. “I kind of want to see what Koushu gets up to when she brings out the big guns.”

“Just don’t shoot anyone in black.”

“Yeah, these guys are nice!” Goku chimed in, sounding a bit farther from whatever mike Sanzo was using. “They even gave Hakkai-”

“I’m certain we can discuss that later,” Hakkai cut him off mildly.

Gojyo groaned. “Just _don’t miss_.”

“Oh, that’s not ominous,” Daniel muttered as they geared up and prepared to follow the blinking light on the tablet map. “First Unit… She must have reformed it. Well, nine centuries, plenty of time to do that….”

_The Ants of Heaven_ , Jack thought, as they headed out the door at a run. _That unit had a sense of humor_.

Hopefully their successors also had a sense of _training_ , because the booms were even louder now. What the hell were they fighting-?

Staring out through a rubble-strewn hole in the wall, Jack damned his curiosity to the ice-pits of Antarctica. And damned Koushu’s brain to the fiery debris that was left of Netu. Spiders weren’t supposed to come in tiger, elephant, and Greyhound bus sizes.

Not that what the Heavenly Army guys plus Sanzo’s bunch were fighting were actually spiders. Lots of legs, check. More or less overall shape, check. Venom-dripping fangs, oh god check. But some had twisted snakelike heads, and some were sort-of-kind-of humanoid shaped, and there were even a few cackling-mad youkai riding some of the beasts into battle throwing shards of dark lightning-

A fireball bloomed almost under one of the not-spiders, as a dark-haired youkai swordsman in white who didn’t look at all cackling mad stabbed upward, trying to drag someone out of fang range.

“Possible friendly!” Jack barked.

Bless his team, they took it from there.

Teal’c took one glance and dove in, staff weapon bracing the monster up when it tried to strangle both its victims in too many arms. Daniel was right in there with him, pistol snapping at vulnerable eyes as he helped the swordsman drag a half-conscious redheaded stranger clear. Sam hung back with her commander, both of them using guns as they were meant to be used: _distance weapons_.

…Which, honestly, Daniel was a lot better about these days, but given the choice between shooting people and rescuing them, Jack was just as glad to let Daniel handle rescuing. Besides. If these were locals, Daniel was probably the better guy to say hi.

_“Duck!”_

A few hairs sizzled. Jack didn’t worry about them, a little more focused on the fact the crackling sphere of energy Hakkai had just fastballed into the monster on Teal’c looked _nothing_ like the usual ripple of a Goa’uld ribbon device.

Left a nifty hole, though. Ouch.

And here came the rest of Sanzo’s unholy crew, forming up on them even as the First Unit fell back to join them, Hakkai heading for the bloodied redhead Teal’c had just yanked back to them as Sha’s nasty moon-on-a-chain and Sanzo’s gunfire took over his part of the damage headed the monsters’ way.

_Youkai_ , Jack realized, seeing the stranger’s slit-pupiled violet eyes. Glanced at the dark-haired swordsman currently guarding Danny’s back as they got back behind armed people; short-haired, tall and muscled, with the oddest markings across his face. A kind of familiar face. _And… looks like another youkai_.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve, dropping in here!” Sha snarled.

The swordsman smirked. “Nice to see you too, little bro.”

_Wait. What? Can’t be_ -

“Dokugakuji!” Sanzo snapped out that tongue-twister of a name without even blinking, ignoring the dragon clinging to his shoulder and shooting past Goku’s head as the kid cackled and cracked chitin with his staff left, right, and center. “I want your intentions right now-”

The swordsman’s smirk vanished. “Lirin’s in trouble!”

“…Ah, hell,” Sanzo groaned. “Hakkai! We need him able to talk!”

“Let me help you, sir.” A serious-looking black-haired soldier with those odd violet eyes, ducking around Sam to pull out what looked like a first-aid kit. “Souko, unit medic – no sense any one of us getting drained dry….”

Goa’uld medics. Good. Though where the hell was Souko’s healing device? “Carter,” Jack bit out. Because he’d seen her double-take at Souko brushing close – and given there were at least a dozen more uglies trying to swarm them, despite the First Unit’s volume of gunfire, she had to have one hell of a reason.

_Gunfire, not zats. Makes sense, some of these things are youkai, but Goa’uld using guns is_ so weird-

Sam glanced over the uniforms they were fighting beside, eyes wide. “Sir - they’re not Goa’uld!”

_Say what?_

Another redhead – human-red, not the violent scarlet Sha and Kougaiji sported – kind of grinned at that. “Long story!” He thumped Sha on the shoulder, as casually as any soldier would do with his own unit; as if he weren’t worried one second that Sha’s razor-scythe-thing would do a number on his own neck. “Sir, these things are too close to civilian quarters! We need to fall back where we can get them into a killzone!”

“Rikuou, don’t call me- ah, screw it,” Sha grumbled. “Where?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The scanlation of Gaiden says the guy who unleashes the Natakus is called Kamou. The Saiyuki wiki says “Gamon”. I don’t read Japanese, so I’m going with the scanlation for now.


End file.
